Experts recover human remains at Ukraine crash site despite new fighting

By Natalia Zinets and Gabriela Baczynska

KIEV (Reuters) - International experts found the remains of more victims of the downed Malaysian airliner in east Ukraine on Friday but fighting nearby between government forces and pro-Russian rebels renewed security concerns around the wreckage.

The expert group, which Ukrainian authorities said numbered 101 people, was the largest to access the wreckage since Flight MH17 crashed in rebel-held territory on July 17. All 298 people aboard were killed.

Roads had for days been too dangerous to use because of heavy fighting, frustrating efforts to recover all the victims' remains and push ahead with an investigation.

"The team has finished its work for today. They found and recovered human remains. They will... be brought back to the Netherlands for identification," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in the Netherlands. "The security situation at the site is unstable and unpredictable."

In the latest clashes, separatist forces killed at least 10 Ukrainian paratroopers in an ambush after midnight near Shakhtarsk, one of the closest towns to the wreckage site, the Ukrainian military said.

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Members of a group of international experts inspect wreckage at the site where the downed Malaysia A …

The rebels said they had pushed back government forces around Shakhtarsk, where fighting has raged for several days. A Ukrainian military official said a further 13 troops were wounded and 11 unaccounted for.

The recovery mission included experts from Australia and the Netherlands, whose countries suffered a big loss of life in the shoot-down, as well as representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"Any body part found gives more relief to the relatives of those who died in that accident and will help also to further identify bodies should it be the only part that is left of a person who died in that accident," Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE mission in Ukraine, told a briefing in Donetsk. .

An advance team drove to the site from the nearest big city, Donetsk, on Thursday but stayed only for about an hour and said sides resumed fighting immediately after they left.

Agreement was later reached to extend the limited ceasefire around the route, making it a safe corridor, at talks in Belarus involving Russia, Ukraine, the rebels and the OSCE.

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Members of a group of international experts inspect the site where the downed Malaysia Airlines flig …

In a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised to stick to the ceasefire, a statement on the president's website said.

MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS

Kiev has accused the rebels of planting mines in the region near the crash site, suggesting they want to hamper the investigation and hide evidence, but an OSCE official said no evidence had been found to back up the allegations.

Ukrainian officials said this week about 80 bodies had not been recovered from the wreckage of the Boeing 777. The victims included 196 Dutch and 27 Australians, as well as 43 Malaysians.

Rutte said a total of 400 international experts, including police, forensic experts, military police and investigators were now in eastern Ukraine to help with recovery and investigation.

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Parts of wreckage are seen at the site where the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed, near  …

The United States says the separatists probably shot down the plane by mistake with a Russian-made missile. The rebels and Moscow deny the accusation and blame the downing on Kiev's military campaign to quell the uprising.

Kiev accuses Moscow of supplying arms and fighters to the separatist rebellion, an allegation also made in the West, which has stepped up sanctions against Russia over the crisis.

Russia denies it is involved. The Defence Ministry said on its website that satellite imagery Kiev had released in public to back the accusations was "hastily doctored evidence".

The Ukrainian government also made new allegations on Friday that Russian planes had flown over east Ukraine although Moscow has denied such accusations in the past few weeks.

In other violence, city authorities said five civilians had been killed and nine wounded in the past 24 hours in Luhansk, which, with, Donetsk, is the last big rebel stronghold.

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Parts of wreckage are seen at the site where the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed, near  …

Government forces have intensified their offensive in mainly Russian-speaking east Ukraine since the airliner came down.

The separatists have been pushed out of other towns they held in the rebellion, mounted against rule by Kiev's pro-Western leaders and inspired by Russia's annexation of Crimea after a pro-Moscow president was ousted in Kiev in February.

Luhansk, the smaller of the two main rebel strongholds, is now almost completely surrounded by government troops. It has been cut off from food supplies and left with almost no electricity or running water, authorities say.

More than 1,100 people were killed and nearly 3,500 wounded between mid-April and July 26, the United Nations said.

(Additionl reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Maria Tsvetkova in Donetsk and Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Mark Heinrich)

• Politics & Government
• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Ukraine
• east Ukraine

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African leaders agree steps to fight runaway Ebola outbreak

By Saliou Samb

CONAKRY (Reuters) - West African leaders agreed on Friday to take stronger measures to try to bring the worst outbreak of Ebola under control and prevent it spreading outside the region, including steps to isolate rural communities ravaged by the disease.

The World Health Organization and medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres said on Friday the outbreak, which has killed 729 people in four West African countries, was out of control and more resources were urgently needed to deal with it.

WHO chief Margaret Chan told a meeting of the presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the countries worst affected - that the epidemic was outpacing efforts to contain it and warned of catastrophic consequences in lost lives and economic disruption if the situation were allowed to deteriorate.

"The presidents recognize the serious nature of the Ebola outbreak in their countries," Chan said after the meeting. "They are determined to take extraordinary measures to stop Ebola in their countries."

In a communique after their talks, the leaders agreed to deploy security forces to isolate the frontier regions where 70 percent of the 1,323 cases have been detected.

They banned the transportation of anyone showings signs of disease across borders, and pledged to introduce strict controls at international airports to prevent the virus spreading outside the region.

There was international alarm last week when a U.S. citizen died of Ebola in Nigeria - Africa's most populous country - after flying there from Liberia. Two people quarantined in Lagos after coming into contact with him were released on Friday after they tested negative for the disease.

The three leaders also agreed to step up efforts to protect local healthcare workers and encourage them to return to work.

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Margaret Chan, president of the World Health Organization, arrives for a conference on the Ebola vir …

With healthcare systems struggling to cope with the highly infectious disease, which requires rigorous precautions to stop it spreading, more than 60 medical workers have lost their lives, hampering efforts to tackle the outbreak.

Liberia has already put in place tough measures including closing all schools and some government departments. Sierra Leone on Wednesday declared a state of emergency and called in troops to isolate Ebola victims.

However, Friday's agreement marked a reversal by Guinea, which had previously resisted taking tough steps, saying the disease was under control there.

"Somewhat drastic measures will be taken," Guinea's Cooperation Minister Moustapha Koutoub Sano said. "These (border) prefectures and communities will be isolated."

EMERGENCY COMMITTEE

The outbreak has prompted some international organizations to withdraw. The U.S. Peace Corps has said it was withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

U.S. aid group Samaritans Purse said on Friday it would complete the evacuation of its 60 international staff from Liberia over the weekend. It said two American staff who contracted the disease in Liberia were in a serious condition and would be medically evacuated by early next week.

Charity WaterAid said on Friday it was suspending its operations in Liberia as well.

The WHO is launching a $100 million response plan and the United States is providing material and technical support to the three countries. Further assistance will be discussed at a U.S.-Africa summit in Washington next week.

Guinea President Alpha Conde told Reuters he would represent Africa in those Ebola talks. Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma and Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced this week they would remain at home to tackle the crisis.

Chan appealed on Friday to the wider world to provide more medical experts and funding. She pledged to take personal responsibility for coordinating international response efforts and mobilizing the vast support needed to fight the virus, which can kill up to 90 percent of those infected.

The fatality rate in this epidemic is about 60 percent.

    The WHO has convened an emergency committee on Aug. 6-7 to decide if the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern and to recommend measures to tackle it.

"The demands created by Ebola in West Africa outstrip your capacities to respond," Chan told the presidents.

Chan said cultural practices such as traditional burials and deep-seated beliefs were a significant cause of the spread and needed to change. In the final stages, its symptoms include external and internal bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea - at which point Ebola becomes highly contagious.

On Friday, the government of southeastern Nigeria's Anambra state quarantined a mortuary containing the body of a Nigerian man who died in Liberia while tests were conducted to determine the caused of death.

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Tim Cocks and Oludare Mayowa in Lagos, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, and Misha Hussain, Writing by Tim Cocks and Felix Bate; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Alison Williams)

• Health
• Politics & Government
• Margaret Chan
• Ebola outbreak
• Liberia
• The World Health Organization
• extraordinary measures

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Israel looks for missing soldier; Hamas says he may have been killed

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ori Lewis

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Saturday it had no clear indication on the whereabouts of an Israeli soldier that Israel has accused it of abducting in the Gaza Strip, adding he may have been killed during an ambush.

Israel said Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, 23, who went missing on Friday, had been abducted by Hamas gunmen. It declared a planned 72-hour Gaza ceasefire over, saying Hamas militants breached the truce soon after it took effect.

The ceasefire lasted only about 90 minutes early on Friday. Israel resumed shelling, killing at least 150 Palestinians and wounding hundreds of others, hospital officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his security cabinet into special session and warned Hamas and other militant groups they would "bear the consequences of their actions".

But a statement by Hamas's armed wing said it had no contact with militants who were operating in the southern Gaza Strip where Israel said Goldin went missing.

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A Palestinian carries his son in Shejaia neighborhood, which witnesses said was heavily hit by Israe …

"We have lost contact with the group of fighters that took part in the ambush and we believe they were all killed in the (Israeli) bombardment. Assuming that they managed to seize the soldier during combat, we assess that he was also killed in the incident," the statement said.

The planned 72-hour break in fighting announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hours before it was due to take effect early on Friday was the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting.

At least 1,592 Gazans have been killed since the start of hostilities on July 8 when Israel launched its drive to halt militant rocket fire on its territory from the coastal enclave by unleashing air and naval bombardments. Tanks and infantry pushed into the territory of 1.8 million people on July 17.

Sixty-three Israeli soldiers have been killed, and Palestinian rockets have killed three civilians in Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama called for the soldier's unconditional release and said it would be tough to reinstate a truce after the day's events.

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A Palestinian girl carries a child across rubble from a building that police said was destroyed by a …

"I think it's going to be very hard to put a ceasefire back together again if Israelis and the international community can't feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a ceasefire commitment," he told a White House news conference.

Obama said he has been in constant contact with Netanyahu about the situation, and added that more needed to be done to protect Palestinian civilians.

DIPLOMATIC CONTACTS

Kerry said he had asked Qatar, which is close to Hamas, and Turkey to help free the soldier. "We have urged them, implored them, to use their influence to do whatever they can to get that soldier returned," a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Kerry. "Absent that, the risk of this continuing to escalate, leading to further loss of life, is very high."

Turkey's foreign minister said his country would do its best to help, but that reinstating the truce should be the priority.

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A Palestinian woman reacts upon seeing her destroyed house in Beit Hanoun town, which witnesses said …

Ban also condemned Hamas's reported violation of the ceasefire and demanded the release of the soldier.

The ceasefire, which began at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) on Friday, had prompted Palestinian families to trek back to devastated neighborhoods where rows of homes have been reduced to rubble.

It was to be followed by Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Cairo on a longer-term solution.

A senior Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said the talks would still begin on Sunday, and that Cairo "expects the two sides to cease fire before the launch of negotiations".

SEARCHING FOR TUNNELS

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A Palestinian woman holds her daughter as she looks at the wreckage of her house in Beit Hanoun town …

The Israeli military said that 90 minutes into the truce, militants attacked soldiers searching for tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip used to infiltrate fighters into Israel.

"Out of a tunnel access point or several, terrorists came out of the ground. At least one was a suicide terrorist who detonated himself. There was an exchange of fire," said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman. Two of the soldiers were killed.

"The initial indication suggests that a soldier has been abducted by terrorists during the incident," he told reporters. Mark Regev, a Netanyahu spokesman, said Hamas was responsible for the attack.

Hamas's armed wing said they would not cease fire against Israeli forces that carry incursions inside Gaza.

"It is possible that any (Israeli) invading force would clash with one of our ambushes and that will definitely cause a confrontation," the group said in its statement.

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A Palestinian woman reacts upon seeing her house in the east of Khan Younis, which witnesses said wa …

Israel also said there was no truce to uphold. Asked if the ceasefire was over, Lerner replied: "Yes. We are continuing our activities on the ground."

Kerry said the international community "must now redouble its efforts to end the tunnel and rocket attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel and the suffering and loss of civilian life".

The truce had left Israeli ground forces in place in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip and a military spokeswoman had said operations would continue to destroy the tunnels through which the Islamist group has menaced Israel's southern towns and army bases.

Israeli officials have long voiced concern that militants would try to capture a soldier or an Israeli civilian. In 2011, Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier snatched by Hamas five years earlier.

Amid strong public support in Israel for the Gaza campaign, Netanyahu had faced intense pressure from abroad to stand his forces down. International calls for an end to the bloodshed intensified after shelling that killed 15 people sheltering in a U.N.-run school in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp on Wednesday.

Hamas, isolated in an Arab world concerned about the rise Islamist militancy, is seeking an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. It also wants a hostile Egypt to ease restrictions at its Rafah crossing with the territory imposed after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last year.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Israel
• Hamas
• Gaza Strip
• John Kerry

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Bible left in North Korean sailor's club triggered U.S. tourist's arrest

By James Pearson

SEOUL (Reuters) - American tourist Jeffrey Fowle was arrested by North Korean authorities for leaving a bible under a bin in the toilet at a club for foreign sailors, a source familiar with Fowle's case told Reuters.

During his ten day trip to North Korea, Fowle's fellow travelers described the middle-aged street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio as a warm, amiable, quiet man.

On May 4, towards the end of an evening spent eating and drinking in Chongjin, a large industrial city on North Korea's east coast, Fowle's action led to him being thrown in jail, where he is awaiting trial in one of the world's most inhospitable countries.

He left a bilingual English-Korean bible in the restaurant he and his fellow travelers were about to leave, the source, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivities surrounding the case, told Reuters.

In it, Fowle had written his name and phone number, and inserted photos of himself and his family between its pages.

He was arrested three days later at the airport where he was due to board a flight out of North Korea.

Fowle and fellow detained U.S. tourist Matthew Miller - who was arrested in April for a separate incident - said they will face trial soon and have called on the U.S. government to help secure their release in an interview to the Associated Press, released on Friday.

A hand-written letter from Fowle shown in the interview confirmed he was arrested for intentionally leaving a bible in the northern city of Chongjin.

It is unclear why Fowle left the bible, the source familiar with Fowle's case said. Media reports in Ohio said the 56-year-old is a church goer and was once a member of his school's bible club - but there is little evidence to suggest he was a missionary.

The source familiar with Fowle's arrest also said he did not seem overtly religious.

Yet, at the Chongjin Seamen's Club - a faded compound originally designed as a hostel for visiting mariners that sells foreign whiskeys and serves local food - Fowle wrapped a bilingual English-Korean bible bound in fake leather in a Chinese newspaper and hid it the restroom, under a bin designed to discard the used toilet paper North Korea's ageing plumbing can't handle.

A cleaner found the package, and alerted local authorities.

When his guides asked if anyone had left anything at the club - a small cluster with shops, a sauna and noodle restaurants also open to locals with the cash to spend on cheap drinks - he said it was him, and that he "must've dropped it."

Fowle said at the time the bible had "fallen out of his pocket" when using the squat toilet, but the bible was too big to be pocket-sized, the source said.

While North Korea technically espouses freedom of religion it is ranked as one of the world's most oppressive regimes in terms of such freedom. Pyongyang has dismissed recent reports on its oppression of religion as an attempt by the United States to "tarnish the image" of the isolated country.

Two months before Fowle visited North Korea, Australian missionary John Short had been arrested for leaving bible tracts at areas open to tourists in the isolated country. Short, 75, was released on account of his advanced age after state media released a written apology.

Fowle appeared in an Associated Press video on Friday alongside Miller, who was arrested for ripping up his tourist visa and attempting to claim political asylum, according to state media.

North Korea has three U.S. citizens in custody, including Kenneth Bae, a missionary of Korean descent who was arrested in November 2012 and convicted and sentenced to 15 years hard labor last year.

FOWLE'S ARREST

Chongjin is one of the most sensitive cities open to tourists visiting North Korea. The scene for much of journalist Barbara Demmick's 'Nothing to Envy' book, based on a collection of interviews, it is the very epitome of the grim, grey Orwellian North Korea recalled by defectors.

"They don't mess about in Chongjin," one tourism source with experience of working in the city said.

If Fowle had hidden a bible anywhere else in North Korea, he probably wouldn't have been arrested, sources in the North Korean tourist industry said. Sources working in North Korea are often forced to remain anonymous when talking to the press for fear of state reprisal or loss of business.

If the staff at the Seamen's Club who found the bible had told Fowle's guides, and not the authorities, they might have avoided the arrest too, the source familiar with his arrest said.

Fowle hid the bible on May 4. He later admitted to the group that he had left it there deliberately, for "someone to read."

The rest of Fowle's group didn't talk to him when they heard what he had done. They felt he had put them in danger.

After the incident, Fowle had two days of normal sightseeing in Pyongyang, where he took photos of large bronze statues of North Korea's former leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

He was arrested on May 7, once he cleared customs at Pyongyang's Sunan airport.

(Reporting By James Pearson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Simon Cameron-Moore)

• Society & Culture
• Crime & Justice
• North Korean
• Chongjin

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Factory blast in east China kills at least 65: state TV

BEIJING (Reuters) - A factory blast in China's eastern industrial province of Jiangsu has killed at least 65 people, China Central Television (CCTV) said on Saturday on its Weibo microblog account.

CCTV said the factory manufactures metal products and has foreign investors.

(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Judy Hua)

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India, U.S. stress strategic ties but tensions remain

By David Brunnstrom and Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States and India stressed their desire to boost business and defense ties on Thursday, but trade and spying rows were a reminder of the obstacles to President Barack Obama's vision of a "defining" partnership.

After a day of meetings in New Delhi seen as a preparation for a September visit to Washington by new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Indian leader's election had created a "singular opportunity."

"The moment has never been more ripe to deliver on the incredible possibilities in the relationship between our two nations," he told a news conference after the annual Strategic Dialogue meeting between the two countries.

"The United States and India can and should be indispensable partners in the 21st century," he said.

His Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, said the two countries were at "an important turning point" and said they shared "converging long-term strategic interests."

She told the news conference that India was keen to see greater U.S. business participation in its economy and expanded defense cooperation.

Kerry said delivering on the potential was key and much needed to be done to deliver concrete progress by Modi's visit.

He stressed the need to break down barriers to trade, subsidies and protectionism, which U.S. firms have long cited as obstacles in India.

He hailed Modi's commitment to economic reform, but added: "We are waiting to see — the proof is always in the pudding."

The comments show lingering frustrations in a relationship that, while it has come a long way since the suspicions of the Cold War, has yet to live up to Obama's 2010 rhetorical billing as "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."

TRADE, SPYING ROWS

The talks in Delhi were overshadowed by a dispute over India's opposition to a world trade pact and a new expression of Indian irritation over U.S. surveillance activity.

Kerry urged India to reconsider its threat to veto the landmark pact agreed last year in Bali, which aims to speed trade by standardizing customs rules and slashing red tape.

New Delhi has insisted it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidize and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organization rules.

For its part, India on Thursday, raised the issue of U.S. surveillance activities, with Sushma saying such acts were "unacceptable" and had caused resentment in her country.

According to a document leaked by former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post earlier this year, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was among a handful of political organizations a U.S. court allowed the U.S. National Security Agency to spy on.

Kerry said it was not U.S. practice to comment on intelligence matters but added: "We fully respect and understand the feelings expressed by the minister."

The Obama administration sees India as a key strategic counter-balance in Asia to an increasingly assertive China and has been seeking to revive ties since Modi's election in May.

The relationship took a dive last year after an Indian diplomat was arrested in New York on charges of mistreating her domestic help, an episode that provoked outrage in New Delhi.

Modi himself was banned from visiting the United States after Hindu mobs killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, in 2002 while he was chief minister of his home state of Gujarat.

Kerry said the visa ban was from another time.

"It wasn't me," he said in an interview with India's NDTV network. "Different government, this is a different government."

Kerry said Modi would be welcomed in Washington "no questions whatsoever."

"We want a new relationship. We want to see things move in a very positive way," he said.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Sanjeev Miglani and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

• Politics & Government
• Foreign Policy
• Narendra Modi
• John Kerry
• Barack Obama
• India

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Kurdish oil cargo unloaded at sea, destination a mystery

By Keith Wallis

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Part of a Kurdish oil cargo has been offloaded from a Greek-managed tanker into another tanker in the South China Sea, but mystery surrounds the identity of the buyer and where the two tankers are headed.

The United Emblem, which is carrying more than 1 million barrels of oil, is one of three tankers loaded with oil from the autonomous Kurdish region, which is trying to sell oil independently.

Iraqi Kurdistan is locked in a bitter legal and diplomatic struggle with Baghdad over international oil sales.

A U.S. judge on Tuesday refused a request by Baghdad, citing a lack of jurisdiction, to seize 1 million barrels of oil aboard the United Kalavrvta tanker, which has been anchored off the port of Galveston since the weekend.

The Kurdistan Regional Government filed a letter with the Texas court arguing its sales are allowed under the Iraqi constitution.

Another tanker carrying Kurdish oil, the United Leadership, has been anchored off Morocco for almost two months.

All three tankers are managed by Marine Management Services M.C., a Piraeus-based shipping company.

A senior executive at Marine Management Services confirmed the ship-to-ship transfer involving the United Emblem took place in a "legitimate operation".

The ship is "fixed to a legitimate charterer and performing legitimate operations," said Kostas Georgopoulos, the chartering manager at Marine Management Services.

"The ship is still in international waters," he added.

Georgopoulos declined to name the charterer or the details of the oil transfer but was aware the 161,724 dwt (deadweight tonne) ship was carrying oil from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Around half of the ship's cargo could have been offloaded, according to Reuters AIS ship tracking data.

Data on July 28 showing the ship was anchored with a 100 percent draft indicated the tanker was fully loaded. The ship's draft was 74 percent of the maximum when the information was updated on Thursday, compared with around 60 percent if the tanker was empty.

The ship is anchored in the South China Sea about 20 km off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and about 50 km north-east of Singapore, Reuters data showed.

Georgopoulos did not know where the ship was headed next, saying the charterers were controlling the vessel.

"It's not us controlling the tanker. We are expecting the issuing of orders," Georgopoulos said.

The captain of the ship said when reached by telephone: "You can't speak to me. Please don't call again. Whatever information you need get it from my owners. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye."

The London based insurer of the ship, the London P&I Club, declined to comment specifically on the vessel or its cargo, although director Steve Roberts, said: "We have had some contact" with Marine Management Services.

The United Emblem loaded the oil cargo at Ceyhan in Turkey in mid-June, according to Reuters data, although exports have now stopped because storage at the port is at capacity forcing the Kurdistan Regional Government to shut-off its pipeline.

The United States has publicly opposed direct oil sales, fearing they could contribute to the break-up of Iraq, and instead believes Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government should reach an agreement on how the proceeds from oil sales should be split.

(Editing Ed Davies)

• Kurdistan Regional Government

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Ukraine premier stays on, envoys agree on crash site route

By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament rejected Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk's resignation on Thursday and finally passed legislation he said was needed to finance an army offensive against a separatist rebellion in the east and avert a national default on its debts.

The assembly's about-turn on laws it refused to back a week earlier offers relief to Kiev's Western backers, who had feared Ukraine was sliding deeper into political chaos and might renege on an international bailout as it heads into an election period.

"There are two pieces of news today. The first is that Argentina has defaulted, and the second is that Ukraine has not defaulted and never will," Yatseniuk told the chamber, making clear he would stay in office.

The political battle has been taking place against the backdrop of a military campaign to win back parts of the Donbass region, which borders Russia, from the pro-Moscow rebels.

Having recaptured the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk in early July, government forces are now moving on the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, with the latter now all but encircled and electricity and food supplies cut off.

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Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk arrives for a news briefing in Kiev July 31, 2014. REU …

Both sides stopped shooting long enough for an initial group of international experts, after several days of trying, to reach the site where a Malaysian airliner came down in rebel-held territory in the east on July 17, killing 298 people on board.

The experts hope a larger team of investigators will also soon have access to the site to recover the remains of the last missing victims and look for evidence showing what brought the plane down.

"It's been almost a week since we have been on the site and we haven't noticed many changes. Experts said they have detected human remains on the site," said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for an observer team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which escorted the experts.

The group also said fighting around the crash site started again immediately after they left.

Western leaders accuse the rebels of shooting down the Malaysian plane and have imposed sanctions on Russia, which they accuse of arming the separatists, a charge Moscow denies.

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Head of Australian Federal Police mission Commander Brian McDonald (L), Alexander Hug (C), deputy he …

There is scant hope of a quick end to the crisis, during which Moscow has annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine, but envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE met in the Belarussian capital, Minsk.

Kiev said the sides had agreed to keep open the route to the crash site that was used on Thursday, despite fighting in the vicinity.

"CONSOLIDATION, NOT CONFRONTATION"

Thursday's vote in parliament was an important sign of political unity from Kiev, which is struggling to deal with an economic crisis as well as the war against the Moscow-backed rebels in the east.

In sharp contrast to a stormy parliamentary session last week at which Yatseniuk bellowed at legislators and accused them of betraying Ukraine by blocking reforms, deputies stood and applauded him after backing the amendments.

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A Ukrainian tank moves along a road near Eastern Ukrainian village of Novoselivka Persha July 31, 20 …

President Petro Poroshenko said the new votes in parliament would help Kiev in its fight against separatists.

"We need consolidation, not confrontation," Poroshenko said. "We have to be united against external aggression."

Parliament's support was needed to amend the 2014 budget to take account of falling revenue and release an additional 9.1 billion hryvnia ($758 million) to finance the military.

The government also wanted parliament to back legislation allowing consortiums with European or U.S. companies to operate the ageing gas distribution system.

Yatseniuk had said the government would have defaulted on debt payments and missed out on the release of further funds under a $17-billion International Monetary Fund bailout if it had failed to pass the legislation.

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Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk speaks to the media in Kiev July 31, 2014. Ukrainian p …

"The laws the government is insisting on are unpopular and difficult, but very necessary," Poroshenko said, adding that they would "enable the economy, the state as a whole, to function".

Laws passed on Thursday also introduce an additional 1.5-percent personal income tax until the end of the year to cover the military. Taxes were raised on tobacco and the mining, oil and gas sectors. Nearly 2 billion hryvnias were earmarked for rebuilding of infrastructure damaged by fighting in the east.

The exit of two parties from the ruling coalition last week amounted to the start of a campaign for seats in a legislature still packed with former allies of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted by street protests in February.

Western governments have come to regard Yatseniuk as a key interlocutor in the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War ended. His departure would have been seen as leaving a vacuum at the heart of decision making.

The United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow this week that were far tougher than earlier measures. Russia has been hitting back.

It announced a ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Poland on Wednesday and a day later placed an embargo on Ukrainian fruit juice. Greek fruit and U.S. poultry could follow, Russian media said.

(Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Donetsk, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Timothy Heritage, Editing by Will Waterman)

• Politics & Government
• Ukraine
• Russia

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Taiwan gas blast kills 15, injures 243: local media

TAIPEI (Reuters) - An explosion caused by a gas leak in the southern Taiwanese city Kaohsiung has killed 15 people and injured another 243, Taiwanese media reported on Friday.

Smoke with a "gas-like smell" was seen coming out of drains in the streets before the explosion, Formosa TV and the China Times newspaper said.

The blast ignited huge fires and overturned and destroyed cars. Reuters photographs showed a scene of devastation, including the body of a dead or injured child on the ground among the rubble.

Rescuers formed a chain to pull the injured from a deep crater in the road.

The media said some residents described it as having felt like the area was hit by a powerful earthquake.

The Kaohsiung government has set up an emergency centre, with a plan to send soldiers in to coordinate the rescue operation, the media said.

The death toll was likely to rise further, they added.

(Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Alison Williams)

• Disasters & Accidents
• Society & Culture
• Taiwanese media

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Israel, Palestinian militant groups agree to three-day Gaza truce

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to a three-day humanitarian truce to begin Friday morning, and negotiators from both sides will travel to Cairo to discuss a longer-term solution.

The 72-hour break after more than three weeks of fighting was set to begin at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), according to a joint statement released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

An official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had accepted the U.S./U.N. proposal. A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist group dominant in Gaza, said all Palestinian factions would abide by the truce.

"We urge all parties to act with restraint until this humanitarian ceasefire begins, and to fully abide by their commitments during the ceasefire," Kerry and Ban said. "This ceasefire is critical to giving innocent civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence."

Hours before the ceasefire was announced, Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said he would not accept any truce that stopped Israel from completing the destruction of militants' infiltration tunnels.

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An Israeli army officer gives explanations to journalists during an army organised tour in a tunnel  …

According to the Kerry and Ban statement, forces on the ground would remain in place during the ceasefire.

Israel and Palestinian delegations in the meantime will travel to Cairo for separate negotiations to reach a more durable ceasefire, the statement said.

The Palestinian delegation will be comprised of Hamas, Western-backed Fatah, the Islamic Jihad militant group and a number of smaller factions, Palestinian officials said.

A senior U.S. State Department official said talks could start as early as Friday, depending on how long it takes the parties to reach Cairo. Representatives from Israel and the United States will not sit across the table from Hamas, the official added.

The United States, European Union and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist group.

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An Israeli soldier adjusts sights on a tank at a staging area outside the central Gaza Strip July 31 …

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it "stresses the importance the two sides respect their obligations resulting from their announcement of ceasefire so that negotiation can be held in suitable condition and achieve the desired results."

Fighting continued, however, overnight. Hamas said it fired rockets at Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the area of Tel Aviv. Israel's military said its Iron Dome defense system intercepted one of the rockets. Residents of Gaza reported further Israeli shelling.

Previous international attempts to broker a humanitarian truce were less successful, securing shorter periods of calm, some of which collapsed immediately after being announced.

U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said it took a massive diplomatic push to achieve the ceasefire.

"The Egyptians played an important role, the Qataris played an essential role in helping bring the parties on board, the Turks were in touch with all sides. This was a collective effort," Feltman told CNN.

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A Palestinian firefighter participates in efforts to put out a fire in a van, which witnesses said w …

STRONG DEMANDS

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza on July 8 in response to a surge of cross-border rocket attacks.

Gaza officials say at least 1,427 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered territory and nearly 7,000 wounded. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting and more than 400 wounded. Three civilians have been killed by Palestinian shelling in Israel.

Netanyahu faces intense pressure from abroad to stand his forces down. The United States and the U.N. Security Council have urged both sides to halt fighting in Gaza to allow in humanitarian relief.

Israel has ordered its ground forces to focus on locating and destroying a warren of tunnels through which Hamas has menaced its southern towns and army bases.

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An Israeli tank manoeuvres outside the northern Gaza Strip after crossing into Israel from Gaza July …

"Our understanding is that the Israelis will make clear to the U.N. where their lines are, roughly, and they will continue to do operations to destroy tunnels that pose a threat to Israeli territory that lead from the Gaza strip into Israel proper as long as those tunnels exist on the Israel side of their lines," said the State Department official.

With Israeli forces remaining on the ground to pursue that mission, it could open the way for Israel to declare it achieved the main goal of its ground offensive and to pull troops out of the Gaza Strip.

Kerry, speaking to reporters during a trip to New Delhi, said the parties need to find a way to address Israel's security concerns and to ensure that the people of Gaza can live in safety and dignity.

"All the people involved in this have strong demands and strong visions on what the future should look like. Israel has to be able to live in peace and security, without terror attacks and rockets and tunnels and sirens going off in the day," Kerry said.

"And Palestinians need to be able to live with the opportunity to educate their children and move freely and share in the rest of the world and lead a life that is different from the one they have long suffered," he added.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in New Delhi; Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Lisa Shumaker)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Israel
• Gaza Strip
• John Kerry
• Hamas

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