island over the years has attracted people from all over the world just like those on mh-370. nationalities and religions, and it s very, very important for this. reporter: some of those attending the service, members of the chinese community here. two-thirds of those killed on that malaysian air flight crash were chinese. eric. all right, greg. thanks so much. politics now. republicans running for president are making a big push ahead of the first primary debate this thursday. 17 candidates are hitting the trail and many of them are also doing the rounds of the sunday talk shows. elizabeth prahn in our d.c. bureau with a wrap-up. what are they saying.
if you are joining us now, this is the latest on the crash of malaysia air 17. it went down 25 miles from the russian border earlier today. that plane was carrying 295 people, 280 passengers and 15 crew members traveling from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. ukrainian officials say the plane was shot down and president petro poroshenko called the crash an act of terrorism. an adviser to the interior minister says a soviet air launcher hit the plane. both the ukrainian government and pro-russian separatists are denying responsibility for the downed jet. wreckage from the plane has been found near a rebel-held town bolstering the theory that the fuselage broke apart before landing and scattered debris around a very wide area. before the crash he saw a white trail of smoke rising from the ground and seconds later he heard an explosion. today s crash is the second tragedy this year for malaysian airlines and follows the
announced sanctions against russia. hi, alex. great to be here. i know it s a busy day. it is. let s get right to it. we know from the white house, the readout is that president putin mentioned the malaysian air flight crash on his call with the president. can you offer any more specifics on what the contents of that conversation was? reporter: i can t really offer additional content there. i can tell you this was happening very quickly this morning, as soon as news report emerged, we made the secretary aware, and i know the white house made the president aware and of course, we ve been doing everything possible to determine whether american citizens were on board that plane since then. jen, i know earlier today you couldn t give conversation as to whether there were americanses onboard. do you have any update on that? i don t have any update. we re working around the clock. every minute we have a team trying to determine whether there were american citizens on board. as
overseas. upon just hours after a five-hour humanitarian cease-fire between israel and hamas ended today, israel has officially begun a ground offensive in gaza. in the last hour israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu announced he had, in fact, instructed the military to begin a grounds offensive. israeli defense forces tweeted that a large ivf force has just launched a ground operation in the gaza strip, a new phase of operation protective edge has begun. meanwhile, on the other story of the day, the crash of malays lk flight 17. it was carrying 295 people, 280 passengers and 15 crew from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. the airliner was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. vice president joe biden said the plane was shot at an event vice president joe
military cargo plane that was shot down only on monday, and we are told by some u.s. officials that that plane appears to have been shot down perhaps by separatists using these buks and missiles. nbc news pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. thanks for your time and information. malaysian air jet mh17 has crashed near the russian border, the site of recent fierce fighting between the ukrainian military and pro-russian separatists. the jet lost radio contact with ukraine yaen air traffic control at 33,000 feet and it remains unclear on what caused the crash. the pentagon says u.s. cannot confirm reports coming from ukrainian authorities that the plane may have been shot down. all of this comes 24 hours after 24 hours after president obama