So Where Are the Black Boxes?

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17's black boxes are key to the crash investigation—so where are they? Good luck with that. The New York Times reports that the voice and data recorders have been taken from the crash site, but after that it gets confusing. There's all kinds of conflicting claims about whether they're in the hands of the Ukraine government or of pro-Russian rebels who control the territory, or even whether they've been found at all. A sampling of the confusion:

• The governor of Ukraine's Donetsk region said, "Two black boxes were found by our emergency services," per the Independent, though he added, "I have no information on where these boxes are at the moment."
• A separatist leader, Alexander Borodai, has a different story. "No black boxes have been found," he told the AP. "We hope that experts will track them down and create a picture of what has happened."

• The Telegraph says one black box is on the way to Moscow, though Russia's foreign minister said, "We do not plan to take these boxes" because doing so would interfere with an international investigation.
• ABC notes that it's not even clear how many recording devices were on the Boeing 777 in the first place.

The situation might clear up now that international investigators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have arrived and been allowed access to the site, reports the BBC. (More Malaysia Airlines stories.)