Deutsche Welle
English Service News
October 4th, 2001, 16:00 UTC
A Russian plane that crashed into the Black Sea with more than 70
passengers on board may have been accidentally hit by an errant
Ukrainian surface-to-air missile, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The plane could have been a victim of a tragic accident instead of an
act of terror, the officials told Reuters news agency, who asked to
remain unidentified. But Ukraine's Defence Ministry has denied its
forces caused the crash of a Russian airliner. A military spokesman
said the Ukrainian military had no involvement because its missiles
lack the range to have reached the plane. Ukrainian forces were
holding live missile tests on the Black Sea peninsular of Crimea
around the time that the airliner, a Tupolev-154 jet flying from
Tel-Aviv to the Siberian town of Novosibirsk, crashed. President
George W. Bush was briefed on the incident by his national security
advisers on Thursday morning.
Israeli authorities have suspended all flights from Tel Aviv's Ben
Gurion airport but allowed incoming planes to land. Russian President
Vladimir Putin told a meeting of European Justice ministers that the
crash was possibly the result of a terrorist act. Unconfirmed reports
say all the passengers were Israelis, probably Jewish Russian
immigrants. An Armenian pilot flying alongside the downed TU-154
Sibir airlines jet, which had been heading from Tel-Aviv's Ben Gurion
airport to the Siberian town of Novosibirsk, witnessed the crash.
A suspected Palestinian gunman posing as an Israeli soldier opened
fire in a crowded bus terminal in northern Israel on Thursday,
killing three Israelis and wounding 13 people, Israeli police and
media said. In Afula, witnesses to the shooting said security forces
killed the gunman shortly after he began his shooting rampage.
Thursday's shooting was the latest attack to mar a fragile ceasefire
agreement reached last week in talks between Israeli Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Israeli Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishky told Israel Channel
One television it was a (quote) a "terrorist attack." Earlier on
Thursday, Israeli diplomatic sources said Israel's security cabinet
had given the army a green light to resume an internationally
condemned policy of hunting and killing Palestinian militants.
Britain has released what it said was firm evidence about last
month's U.S. attacks, saying they bore all the hallmarks of previous
atrocities carried out by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. In a
21-page document, the government said it had evidence linking bin
Laden and Afghanistan's Taliban regime to the suicide plane attacks
on New York and Washington. Earlier British Prime Minister Tony Blair
told parliament the time was approaching for retaliatory action. The
British government said it had learned only after the September
11 attacks that bin Laden had previously indicated he was about
to launch a major attack on America. It also said that in August and
early September close associates of bin Laden were warned to return
to Afghanistan from other parts of the world by September 10. The
document listed the similarities as the use of suicide attackers; the
total disregard for other casualties, including Muslims; meticulous
long-term planning; the absence of any warning; and the co-ordinated
nature of the attacks.
U.S. President George W. Bush announced Thursday that the United
States would provide $320 million in humanitarian aid to alleviate a
burgeoning refugee problem in Afghanistan triggered by threats of
U.S. military action. In a speech to State Department employees Bush
said the U.S. strongly and firmly opposes the Taliban regime but at
the same time were friends with the Afghan people.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose
Maria Aznar began a bi-annual summit on Thursday expected to focus on
the European Union and the aftermath of the attacks on U.S. cities.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique said the two leaders had
discussed international security after the U.S. attacks, and Spain's
2002 presidency of the European Union. At a news conference he said
this was not a struggle of civilisations or of cultures, but
a fight of civilisation against barbarism. Schroeder and Aznar could
discuss what support they are likely to offer Washington in any
military retaliation. NATO said on Wednesday the United States had
asked for "unlimited permission" to fly over its allies' airspace.
Pique said the EU should work towards creating what he referred to as
a "common European judicial space" to fight "all types of terrorism"
including eliminating remaining hurdles to extradition between
member states and boosting security and defence cooperation.
NATO leaders including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the
alliance's Secretary-General George Robertson say ties with Russia
have entered a new era of cooperation.
Visiting Brussels on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and
EU officials agreed to exchange secret service information on terror
suspects and their weapons and financial transactions. In Washington,
Powell described the change as "historic" and said a Russian
membership of NATO was no longer unthinkable. British Prime Minister
Tony Blair is due to fly to Moscow today for talks with Putin. From
there, it's reported that Blair will travel to Pakistan on Friday.
Nearly two weeks after Hamburg city swung to the right in elections,
local FDP liberals say they want to open talks on forming a coalition
with the CDU and a party led by hardline judge Ronald Schill.
His "law and order" party scored 19.4 percent, giving the potential
centre-right coalition more seats than Hamburg's incumbent
Social-Democrat-Greens government. At exploratory talks on Wednesday
night, centre-right leaders said they wanted more police and homeless
people removed from Hamburgs streets and put in shelters. Local
liberals hold a conference on Monday to decide on coalition talks.
A legal application by Germany's federal and regional state
governments to ban the far-right NPD party has passed its first
hurdle in being granted a hearing by Germany's Constitutional Court.
On Wednesday in Berlin thousands of police officers kept apart about
1,000 neo-Nazis attending an NPD march and counter-demonstrators. The
NPD march went ahead but under restrictions set by a Berlin court.
This year's alternative Nobel prizes awarded by the Right Livehood
Foundation go to four recipients including the Israeli peace group
"Gush Shalom" and the Brazilan liberation theologist Leonardo Boff.
Announcing its choices, the trust based in Stockholm, also named the
Venezualen Jose Antonio Abreu for his network of child and youth
orchestras and the British anti-atomic group "Trident Ploughshares".
The prizes in total are worth 215,000 euros.
Swissair has resumed flights but only at 15 percent capacity after an
emergency 303-million-euro cash injection from the Swiss government.
Its first flights left Zurich for Moscow and Johannesburg. Swissair
said its subsidiary Crossair - the only unit likely to survive in a
bank bailout - would also provide 110 extra European flights.
Crossair said it would carry stranded passengers who presented
Swissair tickets with the first three digits "085" through October,
depending, though, on seat availability. Swissair suspended
operations on Tuesday, leaving 38,000 passengers stranded world-wide.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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