The latest: Death Toll in Russia Plane Crash Reaches 120

09.07.2006
Death Toll in Russia Plane Crash Reaches 120
A Russian airliner crashed on landing and burst into flames in Siberia on Sunday, killing at least 120 people and injuring more than 50, emergencies officials said. A total of 200 passengers, including 8 crew, were on board Sibir airlines flight 778 from Moscow to Irkutsk. Many of them were children.

09.07.2006
Airbus Offers Help in Probing Russian Plane Crash
European aircraft-maker Airbus will help Russia investigate an air crash in Siberia Sunday that claimed more than 100 lives. The company’s experts are expected to arrive in Irkutsk shortly.

09.07.2006
Foreign Nationals Among Passengers Killed in Russian Airliner Crash — Officials
Several foreign citizens were among the passengers on board the A-310 airliner that crashed in Irkutsk on landing early Sunday, the Irkutsk airport authorities said.

09.07.2006
Senior Security Official Killed in Georgia’s Breakaway Province
A senior security official in Georgia’s restive South Ossetia province was killed in the early hours of Sunday. Police investigators are convinced that the attack on Alborov had been thoroughly planned and was timed to the summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations that opens in St. Petersburg, Russia this month.

09.07.2006
Blair to Discuss Russia Ban on Top Investor Entry With Putin at G8
Tony Blair will personally lobby his Moscow counterpart Vladimir Putin this week on behalf of William Browder, the high-profile fund manager denied entry to Russia, The Observer reported Sunday. Browder, an American-born British citizen, has been barred from entering Russia since November without any explanation given.

09.07.2006
Russia Under Fire Over Secret Offer of Nuclear Technology to North Korea — Report
Russia is facing criticism after secretly offering to sell North Korea technology that could help the rogue state to protect its nuclear stockpiles, an influential British paper wrote Sunday. Sources close to the proposed sale of the equipment said that it was evidence of Russia’s secret support for its Soviet-era ally.

09.07.2006
Yushchenko Says Ukraine Will Not Abandon Pro-Western Course
Ukraine is bracing for more weeks of stalemate after three pro-Russian parties formed a governing coalition in the parliament and President Viktor Yushchenko told the nation he would not allow the new union to alter Kiev’s pro-Western course. “We will not veer from the chosen path,” Yushchenko said in his weekly radio address Saturday.

09.07.2006
Ukraine Wins Its First Yellow Jersey at Tour de France
Serhiy Honchar became the first Ukrainian to take the Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey by dominating the first long time trial of the race on Saturday. Honchar was timed at 1 hour, 1 minute, 43 seconds over 52 kilometers from Saint-Gregoire to Rennes — at an average speed of 50.5 kph.

09.07.2006
Russian Lawmakers Approve Controversial Laws on Extremism, Elections
Russian lawmakers on Saturday gave final approval to a much-criticized bill that significantly widens the legal definitions of extremist activity. They also gave tentative endorsement to a bill that would allow banning political parties or politicians that engage in extremist activity or rhetoric from participating in elections.

09.07.2006
Russian Passenger Plane Crashes in Siberia, Over 150 Feared Dead
Russian passenger plane carrying 200 people, many of them holidaymakers, crashed during a domestic flight to Siberia on Sunday, killing most of those on board, news agencies said.