According to him, most ongoing road projects had stalled due to failure of the previous administration to pay contractors for work done between two to five years.

[contextly_sidebar id=”aTkmr3O668BVkMwOdoSo4jreQUpWKgPH”]He said the ongoing disbursement will see most contractors return to site and speedily execute the road projects.

Mr. Amoako Atta disclosed this in Bolgatanga during a two-day working visit of President Nana Addo to the Upper East Region.

Mr. Amoako Atta, who could not come to terms with the deplorable state of road network in the country, quizzed the previous government on how loans procured to fix the road network in the country were expended.

He said contractors abandoned most road projects across the country because the previous government failed to pay them for work done, but the NPP government led by President Akufo Addo has commenced disbursement of over GHC1 billion to road contractors to enable them  resume work.

“Regrettably, we realized that, the total road network size of 72,000km of this country was in a deplorable state. Out of this, only 39 percent is considered motorable, but the rest is between fair and poor with greater proportion leaning towards poor, and you ask yourself, all the loans that we contracted where did the money go?”

“A lot of road projects were suspended because between two to five years, contractors in this country were not paid for even genuine jobs done. But I am happy to announce that, within a period of eight months, government has paid contractors a little over GHC1 billion and disbursements for both Government of Ghana (GoG) and Road Fund projects  are currently going on” he said.

Mr. Amoako Atta assured the people of Upper East Region that, government is committed to ensuring that the region received a face-lift in road infrastructure.

“The Upper East Region has a total road size of 4,200km, and greater proportion of it fair or poor, but government is tackling it, and you can see that all the contracts that were abandoned for some time, the contractors are back working because government has paid them.”

–

By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said only membership of NATO would enable Ukraine to defend itself from external aggression.

Kiev and its Western backers accuse Moscow of sending troops and tanks into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian forces in a conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people. Russia denies the accusations.

A ceasefire negotiated by envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the separatists and Europe’s OSCE security watchdog, has been in place in eastern Ukraine since Sept. 5 and is broadly holding despite regular but sporadic violations, especially in key flashpoints such as Donetsk.

On Saturday afternoon, a Reuters reporter heard heavy artillery fire in northern districts of Donetsk, the largest city of the region with a pre-war population of about one million. He saw plumes of black smoke above the airport, which is in government hands. The city is controlled by the rebels.

Speaking at a conference in Kiev attended by Ukrainian and European lawmakers and business leaders on Saturday, Yatseniuk made clear he did not view the ceasefire as the start of a sustainable peace process because of Putin’s ambitions.

“We are still in a stage of war and the key aggressor is the Russian Federation … Putin wants another frozen conflict (in eastern Ukraine),” said Yatseniuk, a longtime fierce critic of Moscow and a supporter of Ukraine’s eventual NATO membership.

Yatseniuk said Putin would not be content only with Crimea – annexed by Moscow in March – and with Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking eastern region.

“His goal is to take all of Ukraine … Russia is a threat to the global order and to the security of the whole of Europe.”

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a daily briefing that one soldier and 12 rebels had been killed in the past 24 hours, without specifying where they had died. That would bring the death toll among Ukrainian forces since the start of the ceasefire eight days ago to six.

The rebels have not said how many of their men have died in the same period.

Government forces still hold Donetsk airport, while the city is in separatist hands.

Putin says Russia has the right to defend its ethnic kin beyond its borders, though Moscow denies arming the rebels and helped broker the current ceasefire with Kiev.

Asked about future NATO membership, a red line for Russia, Yatseniuk said he realized the alliance was not ready now to admit Kiev, but added: “NATO in these particular circumstances is the only vehicle to protect Ukraine.”

There is no prospect of the Atlantic alliance admitting Ukraine, a sprawling country of 45 million people between central Europe and Russia, but Kiev has stepped up cooperation with NATO in a range of areas and has pressed member states to sell it weapons to help defeat the separatists.

HUMANITARIAN AID

On Saturday, about 100 Russian trucks arrived in the war-ravaged eastern city of Luhansk, part of a convoy sent to deliver 1,800 tonnes of humanitarian aid to residents.

It is the second such Russian aid convoy and it passed the border without any major difficulty. The first convoy in August was denounced by Ukraine and its Western allies for crossing the border without Kiev’s permission.

The Ukraine conflict has triggered several waves of Western sanctions against Russia, most recently on Friday. The new measures, branded by Putin “a bit strange” in view of the ceasefire, target banks and oil companies.

Russia, which has already introduced bans on a range of U.S. and European food imports, signaled it would respond with further sanctions of its own against Western interests.

Yatseniuk said on Saturday the latest sanctions posed a big threat to the Russian economy.

“It is bluff (by Russia) to say it does not care about the sanctions,” he said, noting that Russia relied heavily on its energy sector and some of the sanctions targeted its oil firms.

Yatseniuk defended his government’s efforts, despite the conflict, to tackle rampant corruption and overhaul the creaking economy, adding: “It is very hard to attract investors when you have Russian tanks and artillery in your country.”

His center-right People’s Front party is expected to do well in a parliamentary election on Oct. 26.

The conflict is taking a heavy toll on Ukraine’s already battered economy, which is now being supported by a 17 billion dollar loan package from the International Monetary Fund.

The economy could shrink by as much as 10 percent this year, the head of Ukraine’s central bank, Valeria Hontareva, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on Saturday, much more than the 6.5 percent decrease previously forecast by the IMF.

Yatseniuk praised a decision on Friday to delay the implementation of a new trade pact with the European Union until the end of 2015. He said it prolonged unilateral trade benefits now enjoyed by Ukrainian firms in the EU while maintaining modest customs duties on European products entering Ukraine.

Some have seen the decision to postpone the implementation of the deal as a diplomatic victory for Russia, which is opposed to closer economic ties between Kiev and the EU, but Yatseniuk said it would be good for Ukraine’s own economy.

“We got a grace period. The EU opened its markets but Ukraine is still protected, so for Ukraine this is not a bad deal,” he said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danylo Lubkivsky submitted his resignation, saying: “(The delay) sends the wrong signal – to the aggressor, to our allies and, above all, to Ukrainian citizens.”

–

Source: Reuters

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After speaking to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko by phone, Putin said he believed Kiev and pro-Russian separatists could reach agreement at planned talks in Minsk on Friday.

“Our views on the way to resolve the conflict, as it seemed to me, are very close,” Putin told reporters during a visit to the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, describing the seven steps he had put forward to secure a resolution to the crisis.

They included separatists halting offensive operations, Ukrainian forces pulling back, an end to Ukrainian air strikes, the creation of humanitarian aid corridors, the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and prisoner exchanges.

Poroshenko indicated the conversation with Putin had injected some momentum into efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 2,600 people since April, saying he hoped the “peace process will finally begin” at Friday’s talks and that he and Putin had a “mutual understanding” on steps towards peace.

But Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk dismissed the plan as a “deception” on the eve of a NATO summit that will discuss Ukraine, adding in a harshly worded statement: “The real plan of Putin is to destroy Ukraine and to restore the Soviet Union.”

U.S. President Barack Obama also voiced caution, saying the conflict could end only if Russia stopped supplying the rebels with weapons and soldiers, a charge Moscow has denied.

Visiting the former Soviet republic of Estonia, now in NATO and the European Union, Obama said previous ceasefires had not worked “either because Russia has not been serious about it or it’s pretended that it’s not controlling the separatists”.

In a further sign of the West’s growing mistrust and disapproval of Moscow over its conduct in Ukraine, France said it would not go ahead with the planned delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia.

Moscow has said scrapping the 1.2 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) deal would harm France more than Russia and the Defence Ministry described the decision as “no tragedy”, but the move is likely to anger the Kremlin and underlines Russia’s growing isolation over events in Ukraine.

NEW SANCTIONS POSSIBLE

The EU, which has followed Washington in imposing limited economic sanctions on Russia, could agree new moves against Moscow on Friday, hitting the defense and finance sectors.

Indicating European leaders were not impressed by Putin’s new proposals, French President Francois Hollande’s office said he had reached his decision “despite the prospect of a ceasefire, which has yet to be confirmed and put in place”.

The ceasefire proposals had little immediate impact on the ground. Shelling of the rebel-held city of Donetsk continued and grey plumes of smoke poured up from the area that includes the city’s airport.

Rebel leaders said they had little faith that Ukrainian forces would observe any truce in a conflict that has left Russia’s relations with the West at their worst level since the end of the Cold War more than two decades ago.

“A ceasefire is always good but our main condition still stands – to withdraw Ukrainian troops from our territory. That’s the only reasonable way,” said Vladimir Antyufeyev, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

A truce would provide Poroshenko with some respite to revive a crumbling economy, battered by months of street protests against a president sympathetic to Moscow and then the violence that erupted after his ouster in February, followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and then prolonged fighting in the east.

A ceasefire may also be more welcome to Poroshenko now because his forces have suffered setbacks in the past week.

Putin is widely thought intent on ensuring Moscow at least continues to have influence in largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine after the conflict ends, though fears of a full-scale invasion by Russia remain in Kiev.

WAR GAMES

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, sought to address concerns over the ceasefire proposals by saying they did not address the status of the rebel-held areas. Some rebels want unification with Russia, others want more independence inside Ukraine.

Peskov also denied a statement by Poroshenko’s office suggesting Putin had agreed a ceasefire. That would imply Moscow was a party to the conflict, and Kiev later amended the wording.

Despite Putin’s proposals, the Defence Ministry announced plans for huge military exercises this month by the strategic rocket forces responsible for its long-range nuclear weapons, involving 4,000 troops in south-central Russia.

Obama made clear NATO, which holds a summit in Wales on Thursday and Friday, would not be cowed.

“NATO must make concrete commitments to help Ukraine modernize and strengthen its security forces. We must do more to help other NATO partners, including Georgia and Moldova, strengthen their defenses as well,” he said in a speech in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

–

Source: Reuters

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The Russian-language feed, which has more than 2.5 million followers, was also filled with tweets denouncing the country’s president, Vladimir Putin.

The impersonator wrote that Mr Medvedev would be pursuing a new career as a freelance photographer.

A Russian hacking collective has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The government quickly confirmed the account had been hacked.

“I resign. I am ashamed of the government’s actions. I’m sorry,” the infiltrators initially wrote, following it up with tweets saying that electricity would be banned, and that Vladimir Putin was “wrong”.

‘iPhones hacked’

Shaltay-Boltay, a Russian hacking collective, has said it carried out the attack.

The group, whose name is Russian for Humpty Dumpty, also claimed it had infiltrated the Gmail account and iPhones of the prime minister.

Following the incident, it tweeted: “Several mail accounts – including the Gmail – and the content of three iPhones of a certain prime minister have randomly fallen into our hands on the internet. Details later.”

Mr Medvedev’s English-language Twitter account did not appear to be affected by the attack.

Analysis: Adam Robinson, BBC Monitoring

Since surfacing last December, Shaltay-Boltay has become Russia’s best known hacking collective – as well as something of a thorn in the authorities’ side.

Its fame rests on a track record of publishing internal Kremlin documents, including leaking President Putin’s New Year’s speech ahead of time last year.

Last month, Shaltay-Boltay published private emails allegedly belonging to a the head of a Kremlin-inspired “trolling” campaign, tasked with filling the comments sections of Western news websites with pro-Putin messages.

Other coups include leaking what it said were private emails of the Russian rebel commander in eastern Ukraine, Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), apparently discussing separatist plans as far back as 2010, as well as purported Kremlin instruction notes telling Russia’s main TV stations how to cover big stories.

Its Twitter account describes the group as an affiliate of global hacker collective Anonymous International.

Shaltay-Boltay’s status as a serious irritation for the powers-that-be appeared to be confirmed out when Russia’s internet censor Roskomnadzor blocked the group’s blog on 23 July.

Source: BBC

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The decision follows a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin ordering the government to ban or limit food imports from countries that imposed sanctions on Moscow for its support of rebels in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

“There is nothing good in sanctions and it wasn’t an easy decision to take, but we had to do it,” Medvedev said.

The ban is valid from Aug. 7 and will last for one year, he said.

–

Source: Reuters

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It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform to the regulations that govern the country’s larger media outlets.

Internet companies will also be required to allow Russian authorities access to users’ information.

One human rights group called the move “draconian”.

The law was approved by Russia’s upper house of parliament in April.

It includes measures to ensure that bloggers cannot remain anonymous, and states that social networks must maintain six months of data on its users.

The information must be stored on servers based in Russian territory, so that government authorities can gain access.

Critics see it as the latest in a series of recent moves to curb internet freedom.

‘Free expression’

Hugh Williamson, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, has called the law “another milestone in Russia’s relentless crackdown on free expression”.

“The internet is the last island of free expression in Russia and these draconian regulations are clearly aimed at putting it under government control,” he added.

Opposition figures have used the internet to air their views, with some gaining millions of followers.

Commentators opposing Vladimir Putin often face restrictions in broadcast outlets and newspapers.

Analysis: Famil Ismailov, news editor, BBCRussian.com

Russian bloggers are bracing themselves for the moment when Russia’s new “information security law” comes into force on 1 August. Some already share advice on how to use proxy servers in order to access social media sites that, in their view, are under threat of being closed.

It is hard to see how the law will be enforced. The servers for most of the popular social media platforms that many Russians use are based outside Russia.

Many popular bloggers are already looking for, and apparently finding, ways to “cheat” the feature that counts page visits and keep their daily unique visitor numbers just under 3000, or to make sure that the statistics are hidden altogether.

Anton Nossik, who is considered Russia’s “internet guru”, wrote in his LiveJournal blog that the new law didn’t threaten individual bloggers directly, but provided legal grounds to block popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal and Google.

“The issue of banning all these platforms in Russia is a political one and it will be decided by only one person”, Mr Nossik wrote, with a thinly veiled reference to President Vladimir Putin.

Critics blocked

Earlier in the year, Russia enacted a law that gave the government powers to block websites without explanation.

In March, Moscow blocked the blog of Mr Navalny, along with two news sites and a organisation run by Garry Kasparov – a vocal critic of the Russian government.

In a statement, Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said the blocks were imposed because of the sites’ role in helping stage illegal protests.

Earlier this week, Twitter blocked access to an anti-Kremlin account that often publishes leaked government documents, following a request by Russia’s federal communications agency Roskomnadzor.

‘CIA project’

For many years, Russia had relatively lax internet laws.

However Moscow has recently changed its tune, with Mr Putin branding the internet an ongoing “CIA project”.

He also claimed that the popular Russian search engine Yandex was controlled by foreign intelligence.

Two years ago, Russia enacted a law enabling authorities to blacklist and force certain websites offline without a trial.

The government said the legislation was designed to protect children from harmful internet content, such as pro-suicide or pornography websites.

On Thursday, lawyers for US intelligence officer Edward Snowden said the whistleblower had filed for refugee status in Russia.

Mr Snowden received temporary shelter in Russia last year.

He had evaded US authorities after he leaked classified government documents revealing mass surveillance programmes undertaken by the NSA in the US and GCHQ in the UK.

Source: BBC

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A military spokesman confirmed 10 deaths but Ukrainian media say as many as 20 died in the overnight attack.

The rebels say they destroyed more than 30 vehicles while unverified video shows bodies around a burning vehicle.

A team of 70 Dutch and Australian forensic experts has arrived at the crash site.

Travelling in a convoy with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors, they are equipped to recover further human remains, the Dutch justice ministry said on its website (in Dutch).

Fighting in the region had previously hindered them reaching the area where the Malaysia Airlines jet came down on 17 July with the loss of all 298 passengers and crew.

But after Ukraine’s military declared a unilateral one-day suspension of operations against the rebels in Donetsk region on Thursday, an exploratory visit was made, followed up by the full deployment on Friday.

Australia believes that around 80 bodies remain at the site.

It is now unclear whether Ukraine’s army or separatist forces control the site, as fighting continues nearby, the BBC’s Tom, Burridge reports from Kharkiv.

On Thursday a rebel delegation held talks with officials from Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE in Minsk, capital of Belarus. The talks are to resume next week, the OSCE said in a statement.

‘Overwhelming enemy forces’

Vladyslav Seleznyov, spokesman for Ukraine’s “anti-terrorist operation”, said a unit of paratroopers had been ambushed on Thursday while moving to a new position.

“The overwhelming enemy forces ambushed our troops in Shakhtarsk, taking advantage of the topography,” he told Ukraine’s ICTV TV station.

The spokesman said the paratroopers had fought back and inflicted “significant losses” on their attackers.

Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky confirmed that 10 soldiers had been killed while a further four bodies had yet to be identified.

Another Ukrainian TV station, Channel 112, said the attack had happened during the night and 20 paratroopers had been killed.

Meanwhile, the Donetsk rebels’ news agency said on Twitter that an “enemy” column had been “repulsed” and three soldiers from Ukraine’s 25th Air Mobile Brigade had been taken prisoner.

Graphic amateur video published on YouTube, and dated 31 July, shows a burning military vehicle with charred and mangled bodies scattered nearby. The dead soldiers are said to be from the 25th Brigade.

‘Stench of death’

Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the investigation at the crash scene, said: “If human remains are found during the search, they will be recovered instantly.”

The forensic experts now also have specialist vehicles for their work, the OSCE said in a tweet.

Regional OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw, who visited the site previously, said that despite reports of tampering with evidence, it looked much the same as when his team had last seen it, nearly a week ago.

“Everything is still more or less the way we saw it,” he told Boston’s NPR news station by phone.

“In some ways it is remarkable in the sense that, two weeks into this, there are many parts that haven’t been touched,” he said, speaking on Thursday.

“The stench of death is still there,” he added. “It is very hot today.”

Most of the bodies were recovered earlier by local search teams and were flown to the Netherlands, where most of the victims came from.

More than 1,500 people are believed to have been killed in the conflict which erupted in east Ukraine in April, after separatists declared independence from the new government in Kiev.

Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March, has been accused of arming the rebels and has been targeted by US and EU sanctions.

–

Source: BBC

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Maria Putin lived just 20 miles from the airport where the doomed jet dpoarted from.

News that the Russian president’s daughter was living among a nation of people still fuming over Russia’s role in the downing of Flight MH17 was only going to spark more outrage.

And once it became known the 29-year-old had a £2million apartment not far from the Dutch airport where the doomed jet left on its final, tragic journey, the angry protests quickly started.

There were demands for Maria to be deported and one Twitter user posted: “Its time you leave B*TCH.”

Another wrote: “Very convenient that Maria Putina lives so close to The Hague. Won’t have to go far to see her father’s trial.”

Maria and boyfriend Jorrit Faasen, 34, who lived in a riverside flat in Voorschoten on the outskirts of the Dutch capital, fled amid the mounting fury.

One resident said tonight: “We have not seen her here since the plane went down.

“She moved in last year and it was all kept quiet for a while. But once it became known who she was, there was certainly some disquiet. And now this has happened. She is obviously not responsible for her father’s actions but we don’t want ­demonstrations around here.”

The neighbour spoke as 51 more of the 193 bodies recovered from the crash site in Ukraine were returned to Holland to join the 40 who arrived on Wednesday.

Many blame president Putin for the disaster, insisting Kremlin chiefs supplied the missile that blasted the Malaysia Airlines jet out of the sky at 30,000ft – killing 298 passengers and crew, including 10 Brits and 193 Dutch.

Pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists control the region where it crashed. Although they deny being ­responsible and claim the Ukrainian shot it down in a blame game that last night was showing no sign of ending.

The bodies will be identified in the town of Hilversum, near Amsterdam.

Mayor Pieter Broertjes also spoke of his anger at the presence of Putin’s daughter in Holland.

He said: “We could also deport Putin’s daughter, she lives in The Netherlands. Then you’ve got a whole different signal you could give.”

He later apologised for the comments and admitted they were “not wise”. But he added: “They stemmed from a feeling of helplessness that many would recognise.”

Maria’s position in Holland was made more perilous after Ukrainian activists published her address on websites.

Her whereabouts were last night unknown. But her father is reported to have a personal wealth of more than £40billion, with properties around the world including a £200million palace on the Black Sea.

Jorrit is also understood to be wealthy in his own right. He worked as an executive for Russian energy giant Gazprom.

There were reports the pair could be back in Moscow where they can be better protected by Putin.

A photograph of Maria, published today, will come as a revelation to many young Russians who have never seen her face.

The only existing pictures are from when Putin first came to power in 1999, when he was pictured with Maria, her sister ­Ekaterina, and his ex-wife Lyudmila.

Known as Masha to friends, she was born in Petersburg and was named after her dad’s mother. Maria is thought to have studied biology at St Petersburg State University – where Putin attended.

He is extremely protective of his ­daughters’ privacy. Ekaterina, 27, is believed to have married the son of a South Korean admiral, though her life is also shrouded in mystery.

As the furore grew over news Maria lived among those mourning the dead of an avoidable tragedy many believe her father’s regime played a key role in, Russia angrily denied it supplied the missile that blew up the jet.

Alexander Yakovenko, the Kremlin’s ambassador to Britain, said Western claims that pro-Russian separatists were responsible did “not hold water”. And he accused the Ukrainian and American governments of trying to engineer a “cover up” over the real cause of the disaster.

Mr Yakovenko added: “Russia doesn’t supply weapons to de facto authorities in Ukraine. No evidence whatsoever has been presented that the Russian government has been doing this.

He also condemned plans by the EU and US to slap tougher sanctions on Moscow.

Britain is pushing for the European Union to impose restrictions on Russia’s defence, energy and ­financial sectors because of Putin’s refusal to help with ­investigations into the Flight MH17 tragedy.

The ambassador said: “First of all, we believe they are illegal, unreasonable and counter-productive. They have nothing to do with the national interests of the countries concerned, including America.

“In my view, the sectoral sanctions against Russia will trigger the long-anticipated endgame of the present global crisis.

“Needless to say, we will consider any further sanctions against us and the measures of political pressure as the clear evidence that our Western partners cannot substantiate their allegations and are eager to engage in a cover-up of the true causes of the MH17 tragedy.”

Mr Yakovenko claimed the case against Russia and the separatists had been largely built on photographs and messages from social media sites which had since “proved to be forgeries”.

But the White House last night accused Russia of firing artillery across the border into Ukraine and said it has evidence that it was planning on giving “heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers” to the separatists.

That came as Boris Johnson claimed the Foreign Office had been charged with checking the validity of donations to the Tories from Russian oligarchs with links to Putin.

David Cameron was embarrassed this week when it emerged the party has taken nearly £1million from Russians – including a £160,000 bid for a tennis match with him and Mr Johnson by Lubov ­Chernukhin, the wife of a former Moscow trade minister.

The London mayor said: “Obviously we are relying heavily on the Foreign Office because they are leading on this and I’ve had absolutely categorical assurances and I think I’ve met this gentleman’s wife and she seemed very nice but they’ve checked him-her out as far as they possibly can.”

But Labour MP Chris Bryant said: “Boris has let the cat out of the bag about the hundreds of thousands of pounds the Tories have taken.”

A Tory source said claims the Foreign Office had carried out the checks were “nonsense”.

–

Source: Mirror

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The KNVB said in a statement it had received many questions over playing in the 2018 World Cup in Russia but felt a debate should be delayed while the country observed a national day of mourning.

All 298 people on board the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 died when it was brought down last Thursday over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev is struggling to quell a pro-Russian separatist rebellion.

Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch and the disaster has led to calls for strong sanctions against Russia, even if it hurts the Dutch economy, opinion polls published on Wednesday showed.

“The association is well aware that a future World Cup in Russia will stir a lot of emotion among Soccer lovers and the next of kin in the Netherlands,” the KNVB said.

“Standing still to remember our enormous loss is now the priority. The KNVB believes it would be more appropriate to hold the discussion over the future World Cup in Russia at a later time once the investigation into the disaster is completed.”

The Netherlands finished third at the World Cup in Brazil this month, but a national mood of euphoria has been replaced by shock, grief and anger.

With 193 of the dead from the Netherlands, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said almost every family in the country of 15 million knew someone who had died or their relatives.

Russia has blamed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for the crash because he refused to extend a ceasefire with the separatist fighters. Moscow denies supporting the separatists.

U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday that Washington believed pro-Russian separatists probably shot the plane down “by mistake,” not realizing it was a civilian passenger flight.

German politicians on Wednesday called on FIFA to move the World Cup from Russia.

“As long as Russian President Vladimir Putin is not an active participant in the investigation into the horror event and does not work against the separatists to ensure an immediate end to the conflict, a major sporting event like the World Cup in Russia in 2018 is unimaginable,” said Peter Beuth, chairman of the conference of sports ministers from Germany’s regional states.

–

Source: Reuters

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the plane was “likely downed by a surface-to-air missile … operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine.”

If pro-Russian separatists are responsible for shooting down the plane with a missile, investigators can’t rule out the possibility that Russia offered help to operate the system, she said.

Power also said Russia should take steps to cool tensions in Ukraine.

“Russia can end this war,” she said. “Russia must end this war.”

The United States and Ukraine are committed to a diplomatic solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, she said, but if Russia continues to choose escalation, additional sanctions will follow.

Separatist leaders also boasted on social media about shooting down the plane and later deleted those references, she said.

On board were 298 people, none of whom survived the crash, she said. Three were infants.

A preliminary classified U.S. intelligence analysis has concluded that the missile that hit Flight 17 most likely was fired by pro-Russian separatists inside eastern Ukraine, according to a U.S. defense official with direct access to the latest information.

The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.

Power had tough words for Russia, saying it had not lived up to its commitments to ease tensions and halt the flow of weapons over the border to the rebels in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk earlier blasted the “terrorists” he blamed for shooting down Flight 17 over Ukraine a day earlier, with 298 people aboard.

He called on all governments to back the investigation and “to support the Ukrainian government to bring to justice all these bastards who committed this international crime.”

Russia, Ukraine trade accusations

Since the Malaysia Airlines jet fell from the sky above eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Russia and Ukraine — which routinely uses the word “terrorists” to describe pro-Russian rebels — have traded blame and accusations.

“Terrorists have killed almost 300 persons with one shot,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday. “Among them are women, children, citizens of different countries of the world.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed the finger back at Ukraine, blaming its recent tough military operations against separatists for the volatility in the region.

But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin rejected that claim, telling CNN it was up to Russia to stop the flow of heavy weaponry across Ukraine’s eastern border and push the separatists to embrace a cease-fire.

He also dismissed any suggestion that Ukrainian forces may have been involved in Thursday’s tragedy.

“There was no way our forces could be engaged in any way in this incident,” Klimkin said, adding that Ukraine did not have any military assets in the area that could have shot down MH17.

Klimkin says Ukraine intercepted telephone calls between “terrorists” at the time the plane was shot down.

Yatsenyuk called for a U.N. Security Council meeting to be held and for all nations to do everything they could to stop what he said was not now just a war in Ukraine or Europe, but a “war against the world.”

Meanwhile, international inspectors headed to the crash site Friday tasked with finding the plane’s flight data recorders, which may lie amid the human remains and debris strewn across fields near the town of Torez.

Ukrainian government officials said 181 bodies had been found.

The latest information from Malaysia Airlines indicates that the Netherlands has suffered the harshest blow, with at least 189 of its citizens among those killed.

Experts have voiced concern that the crash site has not been properly secured, making the recovery of bodies and collection of evidence difficult.

Monitors head to crash site

A group of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is on its way to the crash site near Torez, in rebel territory in the Donetsk region.

Michael Bociurkiw, who was traveling with about 30 colleagues, told CNN the OSCE had been given assurances by separatist leaders that they would be able to pass through rebel-held checkpoints.

OSCE monitors in eastern Ukraine to observe the civil conflict have previously been taken hostage by separatist groups.

There have been conflicting reports over whether the plane’s data recorders have already been recovered by rescue workers or separatists. Ukrainian officials have suggested separatists may seek to take them to Moscow.

An adviser to Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Geraschenko was quoted by Ukraine’s Interfax news agency Friday as saying that the missile launcher used to down the Malaysian plane is already in Russia and will be destroyed.

The “Buk” launcher, as well as the flight data recorders from MH17, were handed over to Russian agents across the border at a checkpoint in the Luhansk area overnight, Geraschenko claimed, citing Ukrainian intelligence sources.

Ukraine’s state security chief has also accused two Russian military intelligence officers of involvement in Thursday’s events. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said he based his allegation on intercepts of phone conversations between Russian officers, saying the conversation implicates the pro-Russian side.

CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the recording.

Ukrainian officials reported earlier this week that two Ukrainian military aircraft had been shot down in the country’s east. They accused a Russian fighter of shooting down a Ukrainian jet Wednesday and said Russian weapons had been used against an An-26 military transport plane Monday.

In an exclusive interview with the state-run Russia 24 TV channel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia would “insist on the most objective, most open and independent investigation” into what happened to Flight 17.

“We’re ready to make our own contribution, but certainly we believe the initiative must be undertaken by the authorities of the country on which territory this tragedy occurred,” he said.

“With regard to the claims raised by Kiev, that it was almost us who did it: In fact I haven’t heard any truthful statements from Kiev over the past few months.”

‘Outrage against human decency’

If the pro-Russian separatists did shoot down Flight 17, headed to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, the jet’s passengers and crew are innocent casualties in Ukraine’s separatist armed crisis.

The passengers and crew hailed from all over the world, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany and Canada. No survivors have been found.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai offered his condolences Friday to the families affected and said Malaysia would support them. The full passenger list will be released once all the next-of-kin have been contacted, he said.

If reports that the jet was shot down are confirmed, “it would contravene international law and be an outrage against human decency,” the minister said, speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

He defended the routing of the Malaysia Airlines plane over a conflict area, saying other carriers were sending their aircraft through the same airspace above Ukraine in the hours before MH17 came down.

“Following this incident, Malaysia Airlines now avoids Ukrainian airspace entirely, flying farther south over Turkey,” a statement from the airline said.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced Friday that the airspace over Donetsk, Luhansk and part of Kharkiv where separatists are operating had been closed indefinitely.

Three months ago, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying in areas some way south of where Flight 17 crashed Thursday.

The Boeing 777 jet had a “clean maintenance record,” and its last maintenance check was on July 11, Malaysia Airlines Regional Senior Vice President Huib Gorter told reporters at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam on Friday. The plane was manufactured in 1997, and it had 17 years of service, he said.

Malaysia’s transport minister said Ukraine would lead the investigation.

Who was on the plane?

The 15 crew members on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were all Malaysian nationals, officials said.

Malaysia Airlines also gave a breakdown of the known nationalities of the 283 passengers: 189 were Dutch, 29 were Malaysian, 27 were Australian, 12 were Indonesian, nine were from the United Kingdom, four were from Germany, four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines, one was Canadian and one was from New Zealand.

Authorities were still trying to determine the nationalities of the other four people on board, it said.

The International AIDS Society said in a statement that “a number” of its members were on the plane on the way to a conference in Melbourne, Australia.

“At this incredibly sad and sensitive time, the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy,” the statement said.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who knew some of those on board through the work of his foundation, told CNN that news of the crash was “awful.”

‘Blown out of the sky’

Leaders and diplomats from around the world have called for investigators to be given unobstructed access to the disputed region.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Ukraine’s President had accepted an offer of U.S. experts to help investigate the crash.

The plane was apparently shot down,”not an accident, blown out of the sky,” Biden said Thursday.

“It is critical that there be a full, credible, and unimpeded international investigation as quickly as possible,” the White House said in a statement.

The Obama administration believes Ukraine did not have the capability in the region — let alone the motivation — to shoot down the plane, a U.S. official told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

But the White House placed some blame on Russia and warned that evidence must not be tampered with.

“While we do not yet have all the facts, we do know that this incident occurred in the context of a crisis in Ukraine that is fueled by Russian support for the separatists, including through arms, materiel and training,” it said in a statement.

But defense expert and retired Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan said Ukraine and Russia both have the missile capability to shoot down such an aircraft at such an altitude.

Russia-Ukraine dispute

Tensions have been high between Ukraine and Russia since street protests forced former pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine’s southeastern Crimea region, and a pro-Russian separatist rebellion has been raging in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Ukraine’s government has accused Russia of allowing weapons and military equipment, including tanks, to cross the border illegally into the hands of pro-Russian separatists.

Merkel stressed Friday that Russia must do more to ease the crisis in Ukraine.

“Russia is largely responsible for what’s happening in the Ukraine now, and I would make an appeal — that the Russian President and the Russian government should make a contribution so that a political solution can be found,” she said.

European Union leaders agreed this week to expand sanctions against individuals and entities in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, with details to be decided by the end of the month. Expanded U.S. sanctions were also announced in Washington.

Airline’s troubles

Thursday’s crash marks the second time this year that Malaysia Airlines has faced an incident involving a downed plane.

On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared with 239 people on board. Searchers have found no trace of the Boeing 777 or its passengers despite extensive search efforts.

Flight 370 probably flew into the southern Indian Ocean on autopilot with an unresponsive crew, Australian authorities said last month.

A new underwater search is expected to begin in August. It will be broadly in an area where planes and vessels had already looked for debris on the surface of the water.

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Source: CNN

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