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The first relatives of victims on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 arrived on Saturday at the crash site, as Dutch and Australian forces prepared for possible deployment to secure the location in rebel-held east Ukraine. A truce has been called in the immediate area around the site by both the Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists, but combat was raging just 60 kilometres (35 miles) away, with loud explosions heard at regular intervals in western and northern suburbs of rebel stronghold Donetsk. "She was full of life," said Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski of their 25-year-old daughter Fatima, an aerospace engineering student who died when the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur plane was shot down July 17, killing all 298 people on board. The Dutch government, which is in charge of identifying the remains found at the site, said that forensic experts had confirmed the identity the first victim on Saturday, one of 193 Dutch citizens who had been on board.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police are identifying the three children killed by carjackers who crashed into their sidewalk fruit stand and then fled.

The United States evacuated its Libyan embassy staff under air cover Saturday as they faced a "real risk" from fierce fighting around Tripoli airport, Secretary of State John Kerry said. The announcement came hours after the country's interim government warned the clashes between militia vying for control of the strategic airport were threatening to tear Libya apart. Fighting around the airport halted abruptly and the convoy sped out of the capital shortly afterwards, witnesses said. Calling for an end to the conflict around the airport, the government raised the spectre of "the collapse of the country" and "the destruction which could result from... endless war".