The first bodies from flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday almost a week after it was shot down over Ukraine, with grieving relatives and the king and queen solemnly receiving the as yet unidentified victims.

Church bells rang out throughout the country as the planes touched down with the much-delayed return of the first 40 bodies of the 298 people killed in the disaster, most of them Dutch.

The Netherlands and other countries that lost citizens in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 are proposing sending police officers to secure the crash site in rebel-held east Ukraine, authorities in Kiev have said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the offer was made by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte "to provide security at the crash scene and surrounding area in order to ensure an independent international investigation into the reasons for the catastrophe."

Russia announced Wednesday that it had begun expanding and modernizing its Black Sea fleet based in Crimea with new ships and submarines, just months after annexing the peninsula from Ukraine.

"Today we have started forming a powerful Black Sea fleet with an absolutely different level of air service, coastal missile and artillery troops and marines," said Alexander Vitko, the Black Sea fleet commander, in a message to servicemen.

A false tsunami alarm left one person dead and prompted hundreds of others to flee their homes in the Philippines, where natural disasters are frequent, a civil defense official said Wednesday.

The cause of the sudden panic that hit Candelaria 88 kilometers (55 miles) south of Manila and other impoverished towns is still being investigated, said Henry Buzar, head of the area's disaster management council.

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday it was possible that many bodies from the MH17 crash were still lying in the open in Ukraine, as remains were recovered from a morgue train.

All 298 people onboard the Malaysia Airlines jet, including 28 Australian nationals and nine residents, were killed after the aircraft was apparently shot down over eastern Ukraine last week.

U.S. Airways plans to resume its direct flights from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv on Thursday after a temporary ban from federal authorities on flights to Israel amid an intensifying conflict with the Palestinians.

The ex-general who lost Indonesia's presidential election to Joko Widodo will challenge the result in court, his campaign team said Wednesday, a move that could spell weeks of uncertainty for the world's third-biggest democracy.

Widodo, the reform-minded governor of Jakarta seen as a break from the autocratic era of dictator Suharto, was named the winner Tuesday after results showed he resoundingly defeated his only rival Prabowo Subianto.

Malaysia's bitterly divided political forces put aside their differences on Wednesday to denounce the attack on flight MH17 as a heinous international crime and call jointly for swift justice for those responsible.

Prime Minister Najib Razak led the charge, condemning the Malaysia Airlines flight's shooting down by a surface-to-air missile.

The U.S. Air Force will launch new satellites Wednesday to track those of other countries and counter possible threats to American spacecraft, officials said.

Italian police have arrested five migrants accused of the grisly murder of scores of fellow would-be refugees when fighting broke out on a boat making the treacherous crossing to Europe, local media reported.