MH17: Pro-Russian separatists have taken control of the bodies recovered from the downed Malaysian airliner while blocking investigators from examining the wreckage. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said they were told 167 bodies have been placed in three refrigerated rail cars outside Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The monitors have been denied full access to the wreckage while armed separatists and local people pick through the pieces.

Separatist leaders say they believe they have recovered the plane’s black boxes, although they are so inexpert at recognizing the equipment they say they aren’t sure.

The Netherlands lost 193 citizens in the crash and Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a statement, “In defiance of all the rules of proper investigation, people have evidently been picking through the personal and recognizable belongings of the victims. This is appalling.”

Although it appears that Ukrainian separatists fired the missile that took down the jetliner, the world is increasingly holding Russia responsible. Ukraine accuses Russia of direct involvement. Three Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft missile carriers, one of them with a missing missile, were recorded crossing the border back into Russia after the jet was shot down.

Gaza: Palestinian militants emerged from tunnels into Israel yesterday, engaging in gun battles and killing two Israeli soldiers. It’s the kind of cross-border tunnels that Israel invaded Gaza to shut down.

In one incident eight militants engaged two Israeli jeeps, killing two officers. One militant was killed and seven others escaped back through the tunnel. In another incident, militants crossed the border carrying tranquilizers and handcuffs, in an apparent effort to take prisoners. One militant was shot and the other blew himself up.

Overnight Gaza came under the most intense shelling since the start of the Israeli offensive with 60 people reported killed in one district.

Smoked: A Florida jury yesterday awarded nearly $24 billion … that’s billion with a “b” … to the widow of a chain smoker who died of lung cancer. The loser was the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, the second largest tobacco company in America. Cynthia Robinson of Pensacola sued, claiming that Reynolds had hidden the hazards of the Kool cigarettes her husband had smoked for 20 years. The jury awarded her $17 million in compensatory damages, and $23.6 billion in punitive. “The damages awarded in this case are grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional law,” a Reynolds vice president said in a written statement.

The Obit Page: Handsome and laconic actor James Garner was found dead in his Los Angeles home last night at age 86. Garner starred in the western television series “Maverick” in the 1950s and again had a big hit with the detective show “The Rockford Files” in the 70s. He played the resourceful “scrounger” in the World War II prison camp movie, “The Great Escape.” Garner tended to play characters who were boyishly witty and relaxed, like him. He said about Maverick, “I’m playing me. Bret Maverick is lazy: I’m lazy. And I like being lazy.”

You’re So Fine:The giant rubber ducky artwork that has travelled the harbors of Asia may have succumbed to natural selection. First the one-ton duck deflated in Hong Kong, then it deflated in Taiwan. Now it has gone missing in Guiyang, China, where floodwaters washed the duck down the Nanming River. The man who coordinates the duck’s travels posted an Internet message. “If you live along the river and see an 18-meter tall big yellow duck, please call 5961027.”

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