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Since then, only a handful of women, including Pam Postema and Ria Cortesio, reached high levels of baseball umpiring minor league games, but none worked the majors.

Last she became the third woman, after Pam Postema, in 1988, and Ria Cortesio, in 2007, to umpire major league spring training games.

Olga Girina also said it may be linked to the earlier 8.8 magnitude earthquake, according to Russian state news agency RIA.

Russia's RIA news agency, quoting a source, said the talks would take place over two days, Thursday and Friday.

"It does bring us a little bit closer to understanding what happened," Ria Patel told BBC's Newshour, but added: "I want to be able to have closure."