Malaysia confirms PM Najib Razak’s step-grandmother was on MH17

Mangalore Today News Network

Kuala Lumpur, July 19, 2014: Malaysia’s Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed on Saturday that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s step-grandmother was on board the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that crashed in Ukraine.

No Sri Lankan national was among the 298 people killed when the Malaysia Airlines plane was downed, Xinhua quoted Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Netherlands, Buddhi Athauda, as telling media.

Hours after blaming Russia-baked Ukrainian separatists for the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines plane that killed nearly 300 people, US President Barack Obama has called on his counterparts seeking an impartial international investigation.

In separate phone calls with British Prime Minister David Cameroon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Obama agreed on a prompt, full, unimpeded and transparent international investigation, the White House said in a statement.


Interpol has said it will send a team in the next 48 hours to help identify victims killed by the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in east Ukraine.


The Netherlands would not rest until the perpetrators of the possible attack on the crashed Malaysian plane were detected, the Dutch Prime Minister said on Friday.


Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin has questioned why Ukrainian aviation authorities allowed a passenger flight through an area of armed clashes where anti-aircraft systems were working.

France’s President Francois Hollande announced on Friday that there was no French national among casualties of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in eastern Ukraine.


A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.

The pro-rebel website Russkaya Vesna today quoted Igor Girkin as saying he was told by people at the crash site that "a significant number of the bodies weren’t fresh," adding that he was told they were drained of blood and reeked of decomposition.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 was shot down on Thursday, killing all 298 people aboard. The plane was flying 10,000 meters above an area where Ukrainian forces have been fighting separatist rebels. Each side accuses the other of downing the plane. US intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down the plane, and US Ambassador Samantha Power told the UN Security Council in New York on Friday that the missile was likely fired from a rebel-held area near the Russian border.