Eindhoven, July 23 
The bodies of the first victims from a Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine last week arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday amid dignified grief tinged with anger.

Bells pealed and flags flew at half mast in memory of the 298 people killed when flight MH17 crashed in an area of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists, in the first national day of mourning since wartime Queen Wilhelmina died in 1962.

King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte led dignitaries on the tarmac as two military aircraft carrying 40 plain wooden coffins landed at Eindhoven Airport in the southern Netherlands.

A military honour guard stood to attention as a lone trumpeter played The Last Post, the military funeral call for people killed in war.

After a minute's silence - observed in stations, factories, offices and streets across this stunned nation - soldiers and marines boarded the Dutch Hercules C-130 and Australian Boeing C-17 to carry the coffins to 40 waiting hearses lined up on the runway.

Relatives of some of the victims were present at the airport but were shielded from the media glare, officials said.

Amid US accusations that the rebels shot the civilian plane down in error with a Russian-supplied missile, an opinion poll showed an overwhelming majority of the Dutch want economic sanctions imposed on Moscow, even if it hurts their own economy.

Windmills around this low-lying coastal nation were set in a mourning position and church bells tolled as the planes carrying the remains arrived from Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, shortly before 4 pm (1400 GMT).

Trains came to a stop for a minute as the country observed a minute's silence. With so many of their countrymen dead, the Dutch have been taking a leading role in the international effort to recover and identify the bodies and investigate the cause of the crash. — Reuters

London: The black box recorders from the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have arrived in Britain for data downloading and analysis, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said Wednesday. The flight recorders, commonly know as black boxes, from MH17 have been delivered by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) to the headquarters of AAIB in Farnborough, Hampshire, for downloading, Xinhua reported citing the AAIB announcement Wednesday on its Twitter feed. The DSB also confirmed that the two black boxes have arrived in Britain.

London, July 23
This year's Man Booker longlist announced today was dominated by American and British authors with no Indian finding a place among the competitors for the coveted prize in its first incarnation as a global literary award.

There are six novels from Britain, five from the US, one from Australia and one from Ireland shortlisted for the prize. Even as no Indian author could make the cut, Neel Mukherjee, an Indian-origin British author, made it to the shortlist.

Australia's Richard Flanagan is the only non-British representative of the Commonwealth on the 13-strong list, while US novelists fill four spots.

The British novels are 'J' by Howard Jacobson, 'The Wake' by Paul Kingsnorth, 'The Bone Clocks' by David Mitchell, 'The Lives of Others' by Mukherjee, 'Us' by David Nicholls and 'How To Be Both' by Ali Smith.

In the event, judges chose four Americans: Joshua Ferris, Siri Hustvedt, Karen Joy Fowler and Richard Powers. An Irish-born US resident Joseph O'Neill was also named in the list.

Irishman Niall Williams made it to the list for his 'History of the Rain'.

Former winner Howard Jacobson is also in the running again.

The rules of the prize changed at the end of 2013, to embrace "the freedom of English in all its vigour, its vitality, its versatility and its glory wherever it may be", opening up to writers beyond the UK and Commonwealth. — PTI

Gaza/Jerusalem, July 23
Bloodbath in Gaza continued unabated today with Israel and Hamas refusing to back down in the conflict that has killed over 660 Palestinians and 31 Israelis, even as US Secretary of State John Kerry said his ceasefire negotiations in Jerusalem were making progress.

Several international airlines today halted flights to Israel indefinitely, citing security concerns after a rocket from Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip landed near Israel's biggest airport, Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.

Kerry flew into Tel Aviv from Cairo despite US warnings over airline safety and held hectic parleys in Jerusalem, also meeting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "We have certainly made some steps forward, but there is still work to be done," Kerry said.

Kerry, during his whirlwind tour of the region, will also meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

On US President Barack Obama's direction, Kerry yesterday held talks with Egyptian and Arab League officials in Cairo to push for an "immediate cessation of hostilities".

Ban also voiced guarded hope for ending the violence, as efforts to broker a truce in the the 16-day conflict hastened.

"We are now joining our forces in strength to make a ceasefire as soon as possible, but there is still some detailed way which we have to make," he said.

"We do not have much time to wait and lose," Ban said after speaking with Netanyahu in the morning.

Fighting shifted to Tuffah, east of Gaza City, today. Hamas fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli personnel carrier. Israeli soldiers died in the clash, Hamas said. An Israeli strike hit a mosque in Gaza City, killing one person and wounding 45 more.

The Israeli military said it hit more than 187 targets overnight, most of them in Shaja'ia, a neighborhood east of Gaza City near the border with Israel.

The death toll mounted as neither side showed any sign of backing down. Palestinian health officials said more than 660 Palestinians had been killed and 4,040 wounded. Some 70 to 80 per cent of them are civilians, according to the UN. — PTI