US believes pro-Russia rebels shot it down

UNITED NATIONS, July 18 (Agencies): The UN Security Council Friday demanded a full, independent and international investigation into the apparent shooting down of a Malaysian jet over Ukraine that killed 298 people on board.
Council members stood for a minute of silence in memory of those who lost their lives in Thursday's crash over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, at the start of an emergency meeting on the disaster.
"The members of the Security Council called for a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines and for appropriate accountability," the council said.


Meanwhile, an initial review of US intelligence suggests pro-Russian separatists likely shot down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine but Washington is still examining the evidence, a US official said Friday.

"There are indications (the separatists downed the plane) but there's no final conclusion," the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Another report adds, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are to give international investigators access to the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines jet.
The rebels vowed to secure the site and allow the recovery of bodies, the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe said.
The two sides in Ukraine's civil conflict have accused each other of shooting the jet down with a missile.
The dead include world-renowned Dutch researcher Joep Lange who was among a number of passengers en route to an international Aids conference in Australia.
It is the second disaster suffered by Malaysia Airlines this year. Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Malaysia to China in March and has still not been found.
The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting on the plane disaster on Friday in New York.
UK PM David Cameron tweeted that he had called the secretary general "underlining the need for a strong commitment to an international investigation".
The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It fell between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk.
Latest figures released by Malaysia Airlines show the plane was carrying at least 189 Dutch nationals, 27 Australians, 44 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 12 Indonesians and nine Britons.
Meanwhile, European flight safety body Eurocontrol says Ukrainian authorities have closed the airspace in the east of the country to all airline flights.
It said all flight plans that use routes in the area are being rejected.
It follows the crash of Malaysian airliner flight MH17 with 298 people on board, amid claims it was shot down.
Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region, a Department for Transport spokesperson said.
However, some airlines in the last week including British Airways and Air France had already altered their flight paths to avoid Ukraine.
British Airways said its flights did not use Ukrainian airspace, with the exception of a once-a-day service between Heathrow and Kiev.
A spokesman for BA said they were keeping those services under review, but that "Kiev is several hundred kilometres from the incident site".
Flight MH17 was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it came down near the village of Grabovo.
The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents more than 38,000 European pilots, said the route flown by the crashed Malaysian aircraft was "the most common route for flights from Europe to South East Asia."
Airline Emirates said its flight EK171 from Dubai to Kiev had returned to Dubai "due to the safety concerns raised with the latest reports on Malaysian flight MH17".