Disturbing news this: Steve Rosenberg from the BBC says that his team was attacked while investigating reports of Russian soldiers' deaths in the Ukraine conflict:
A BBC team has been attacked in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan.
We had gone to investigate reports of Russian servicemen being killed near the border with Ukraine.
As we left a cafe and approached our car, we were confronted and attacked by at least three aggressive individuals.
Using physical violence the men grabbed our camera, smashed it on the road, and then escaped with it in a getaway car. During the scuffle the BBC cameraman was knocked to the ground and beaten.
The team is now safe and back in Moscow.
Following the attack, we spent more than four hours being questioned in a local police station.
We discovered later that while we were there, back in the car some of our recording equipment had been tampered with.
The hard drive of the main computer as well as several memory cards with video material had been wiped clean.
Good morning. The main news so far today:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is due to visit Washington on September 18 where he will address Congress and meet with U.S. President Barack Obama.
Poroshenko is making his first visit to Washington as Ukraine's president and is hoping to convince the U.S. government to provide further help for his country.
The United States has been supportive of Ukraine's government in its struggle with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The United States, along with the European Union and others, have imposed a series of sanctions on Russia for the Kremlin's interference in Ukraine.
Poroshenko arrives in the United States after visiting Canada where Prime Minister Stephan Harper and the Canadian parliament vowed to continue their support for Poroshenko and his government.
Harper told Poroshenko Canada would never recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea or any other part of Ukraine.
This ends our live-blogging for September 17. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Some interesting numbers here: