China demands Malaysia to provide satellite data about flight MH370
The Chinese government is demanding a look at the satellite information which has led Malaysian authorities to determine missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has, indeed, crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysian authorities have informed the families of the missing that they believe there are no survivors.
China's Deputy Foreign Minister says they're demanding the Malaysian side make clear the specifics behind what has led them to this determination.
Malaysian authorities last night announced they have new evidence from British satellites which have determined the missing flight, with 239-passangers and crew onboard, did take a southerly turn into the Indian Ocean before eventually losing contact about 6-hours after it first went off course.
Despite the news, the Chinese side says the search and rescue work will be continuing in the area where authorities believe the plane may have gone down.
Six Chinese ships have been dispatched to the region southwest of Australia where signs of possible debris have been discovered.
Sergey Lavrov meets Ukrainian foreign minister
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met for the first time with his Ukrainian counterpart since the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russian president and Russia's move to take control of Crimea.
Lavrov has met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague.
"We conveyed to him the steps that we see need to be taken by the Verkhovna Rada to finally establish a normal, pan-national dialogue based on mutual respect that takes into account the specifics of different parts of Ukraine and accounts for the interests of all of its inhabitants."
Lavrov, who has also met with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the summit, says he has also reaffirmed Moscow's demand for a constitutional change in Ukraine that will give more autonomy to all regions of the country.
At the same time, G7 nations have held an emergency meeting in the Hague, seeking to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
The group has decided that a planned summit of the world's leading economic powers, which had been scheduled to be hosted by Russia, will not go forward.
In Crimea, the last remaining Ukrainian naval forces and troops are now abandoning their posts following an order from Kiev asking them to withdraw.
Back in Moscow, the Russian government has already started drawing a blueprint for the future of Crimea.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is reportedly considered granting Crimea the status of a special economic zone.
Putin opens account in bank blacklisted by Washington
In a symbolic gesture of defiance, Russian President Vladimir Putin has opened an account in the Rossija bank, where his monthly sallary will now be deposited.
Rossija Bank was blacklisted as part of sanctions imposed on Russia by Washington in connection with the situation in Crimea.
Putin has insisted Rossjia Bank has nothing to do with the situation in Ukraine, saying its unfair its customers should suffer.
The move by Putin comes as Ukrainian authorities prepare to withdraw all their military forces from Crimea, which has been absorbed into the Russian Federation following a referendum last week.
The move to reclaim Crimea has sent ties among Russia, the US and the European Union to their lowest level since the Cold War.
Japan to turn over sensitive nuclear material to U.S. for destruction
Following weeks of official protests by the Chinese government, Washington now says Japanese authorities have confirmed they will be returning hundreds of kilograms of sensitive nuclear materials to the United States.
The agreement has come on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague.
As part of the deal, Tokyo will return all the highly-enriched uranium and separated plutonium it recieved from the United States in the 1960's.
The US gave Japan hundreds of kilograms of sensitive nuclear materials in 1967 for the puropose of studying the physics behind fast-core nuclear reactors.
Revelations earlier this year that Japan still has the material has drawn criticism from the Chinese government.
108 missing or unaccounted for after Washington State landslide
Authorities in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington now say many as 108 people are missing or unaccounted for followiong a massive landslide over the weekend.
A massive wall of earth gave way on Saturday, plowing through a former fishing village about 90-kilometers northwest of Seattle.
Dozens of homes remain buried by tones of mud and debris close to 5-meters deep.
So far official death toll from the slide remains at 8.
However, officials are warning that figure, along with the number of missing, could either rise or fall, as authorities are still unclear as to how many people were in the village at the time of the slide.
Searchers are also warning of the possibility of more slides.
Initial indications are that heavy rains in the area triggered the mudside.
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