BBC News with Marion Marshall.

The Ukrainian armed forces have launched a major offensive against pro-Russian rebels in the east in a bid to gain control over the crash site of the Malaysian airliner. A government spokesman said the army was aiming to seize the site so that the international experts can carry out a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash. Tom Barrage reports. “Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels has intensified, particularly around the strategically important rebel-held city of Donetsk. Government troops have made significant advances in the region near the area of countryside containing the wreckage and probably some remains of the victims on board Flight MH17, the Malaysian airliner which was blown up over rebel-controlled territory 10 days ago.”

The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has ruled out sending an international military mission to secure the site of the crashed Malaysian airliner. The Netherlands, Australia, and Malaysia have been considering a joint mission to protect investigators, but Mr. Rutte said it was unrealistic. Ten days after the plane was apparently shot down, forensic experts have not yet been able to start work. Anna Hollagan reports. “After discussing all possible scenarios along with military experts, they concluded that sending a joint military mission would escalate an already dangerous situation, and Mark Rutte believes it could jeopardize their main objective, which is to recover and repatriate the victim’s remains. Gaining the military upper hand, he said, was unrealistic, highlighting the presence of heavily armed separatists and the proximity of the Russian border.”

The US State Department has released, what it calls, evidence that Russia has been firing across the border at Ukrainian military positions. Russia denies directly intervening in the conflict in Ukraine. From Washington, Tom Esselmont reports. “United States first made the allegation that Russia is firing across the border several days after the downing of Flight MH17, but it had not provided any pictorial evidence until now. The satellite images released by the State Department show what it says are blast marks from multiple rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery captured between the July 21 and July 26 contained in a full black and white photograph as evidence, it says, of the sort of artillery only found in Russian military units.”

Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have each carried out more attacks with both sides accusing the other of violating temporary ceasefires. There has been some Israeli shelling of Gaza, and Palestinian militants have fired rockets into Israel, but there are signs that the fighting may have eased amid unconfirmed reports that the two sides had reached an understanding to hold fire if the other does the same. In a phone call to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama said an immediate unconditional humanitarian ceasefire was imperative.

World News from the BBC.

The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has been accused of carrying out attacks in both northern Nigeria and the far north of Cameroon. Militants in the town of Kolofata in Cameroon have kidnapped the wife of a senior politician and also a local religious leader, as Tommy Oladipo reports. “The Deputy Prime Minister's wife and her maid were taken away in what a government official has described as a savage attack. But the Deputy Prime Minister Amadou Ali was away from his residence of(at) the time of the raid and managed to escape to a neighboring town. Northern Cameroon borders the violent northeast of Nigeria where the Islamist Boko Haram sector is based. The group has recently stepped up attacks across a long and porous border between the two nations fighting against the Cameroonian military. Meanwhile, in the Nigerian city of Kano, police say a deadly bomb attack has hit a church in a district which has previously been targeted by Boko Haram.”

Western governments have been getting their citizens out of Libya as factional fighting intensifies in the two main cities of Benghazi and Tripoli. Egypt also ordered its nationals to leave immediately to save themselves from, what they called, chaotic internal fighting. A British embassy convoy earlier came under a gun attack; the US evacuated its embassy in Tripoli on Saturday. Dozens of people have died in the past two weeks.

The Jihadist group Islamic State, previously known as ISIS, is continuing a major offensive against government forces in northeastern Syria, which has seen some of the heaviest casualties in the conflict. Activists say Islamic State has taken control of an army outpost in the region a day after taking another army stronghold near the Islamist controlled city of Raka.

The Tour de France has reached its climax with the world's top cyclists racing along the Champs-Elysées in Paris in the largely ceremonial final stage. Italian Vincenzo Nibali finished almost eight minutes ahead of his rivals overall to take the famous Yellow Jersey.

BBC News.