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.. . AMERICAS Monday, 29 July, 2002, 23:04 GMT 00:04 UK Monday, 29 July, 2002, 08:26 GMT 09:26 UK . Dozens injured as US train derails . Extreme heat could have
caused the accident An express train has come off the rails near Washington, injuring
dozens of people, six of them seriously.
At least 60 people were taken to hospital according to Montgomery County fire service. Six had suffered what were called "traumatic injuries". Investigators will probably look at whether heat was a cause of the accident which happened after the train passed a bend. Temperatures were about 90F (37 Celsius) - leading to theories that the track may have buckled.
A woman, identified only as Paula, was on the train with her 13-year-old daughter. "The way our car fell, we were on the bottom," she told Baltimore TV station WJZ. "So, we had to climb out onto the top, which was the side of the train, and onto a ladder." Jim Hendrick, who works at a local store, said several passengers had emerged unassisted from the train, some even carrying their own luggage. "Everyone seemed kind of dazed, but it was pretty orderly," he said. However, many passengers had to wait for help from fire crews to leave the wreckage. The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to the site. Former NTSB Managing Director Peter Goelz said investigators will likely look at whether heat was a cause. "You always have to look at it during the summer, he said. "This is a heavily used line by both freight and passengers. When the track gets up over 100 degrees F (38 Celsius), you have things called heat kinks (buckles). "You have to watch your track very carefully." In 1996, the Capitol Limited and a Maryland commuter train collided in nearby Silver Spring, killing all three crew members and eight passengers on the commuter train. . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 21:33 GMT 22:33 UK Cubans defect during papal
visit
 Roman Catholic officials in Canada say 23 young Cubans, who had been
participating in World Youth Day celebrations led by the Pope in Toronto, have
defected.
Two hundred Cubans, accompanied by Cuban security guards, travelled to Canada for the event. The president of the Canadian-Cuban Foundation told the BBC the 23 now intended to apply for political asylum in Canada, pointing to repression back home as their reason for leaving. The announcement came as news emerged of the defection of a high-ranking Cuban Communist Party official and former ambassador to the United Nations. The official, Alcibiades Hidalgo Basulto, fled Cuba last week on a raft and has requested asylum in the US. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 21:12 GMT 22:12 UK Fifty whales stranded in
US
Scientists are not sure
why whales end up stranded At least nine pilot whales are dead after more than 50 of the
creatures stranded themselves in shallow water off the coast of the US state of
Massachusetts.
.As the tide rose on Monday, marine officials and volunteer rescuers worked hard to refloat the whales, which were stuck off Chapin Beach in the Cape Cod area. Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the local office of the US National Marine Fisheries Service said it was the largest whale-stranding in the United States since the 1980s.
Volunteers covered the animals - which were all three to 5.5 metres long - in wet towels and poured water over them to protect them from the sun while they were stuck. "To see this many whales get off free after six hours is amazing," said Judy Scarafile, a member of the Cape Cod Stranding Network. "We all have our fingers crossed that they'll not come back." 'Relaxing day' Scores of holidaymakers watched - and others joined in and helped - after the whales were discovered at low tide in shallow water near the beach at around 0600 local time (1000 GMT). "We came to the beach expecting a nice relaxing day," said Rob Barresi of Natick, Massachusetts, who pitched in to help the stranded mammals, along with his brother Michael. Scientists are not sure why whales beach themselves. Previous beachings This type of whale often ends up stranded on New England beaches, and is known to frequent coastal areas looking for crustaceans and squid to eat. In July 2000, 10 of pilot whales were found stranded off nearby Nantucket Island. All died, despite attempts to get them back out to deeper waters. Ms Frady, of the National Marine Fisheries Service, warned that the whales were not out of trouble yet. "The problem is that after beaching they don't have a very high survival rate," she said. "They remain disoriented and often stay in the shallow water where they eventually drown or die of exposure." . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 23:28 GMT 00:28 UK Guatemala rejoices in Pope
visit
Sand and flower
carpets lined the streets Pope John Paul II has arrived in Guatemala on the latest stage of his
tour of the Americas, to be greeted by thousands of
followers.
The Pope is in Guatemala primarily to create a new saint - the country's first.
Hundreds of faithful vied for space to place sand-and-flower carpets along Reforma, Guatemala City's main street. On one street, driver Freddy Gonzalez pulled his red city bus to a stop and joined a group singing a song in celebration of the Pope's arrival, leaving his passengers to wait in the crowded vehicle. "We all have a duty to our country that is more important than our personal needs," he said, climbing behind the wheel again. Sex claims During a Mass in Toronto on Sunday, the Pope acknowledged the "sadness and shame" caused by the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the church since January.
But the scandals have received little attention in Guatemala. The Pope is remembered fondly for his last visit, in 1996, when many credit him for pressuring both sides to end the country's 36-year civil war. Peace accords were signed only months after his visit. The Pope now comes with a gift for the region. On Tuesday he will canonise Brother Pedro de San Jose Betancur, a 17th century Spanish missionary, set up his own order of priests and nuns to help the poor. The Pope's visit is also part of the Catholic Church's efforts to combat the loss of followers to Protestant evangelical sects, and to support the local Catholic Church, which over the years, has had a stormy relationship with Guatemala's political leaders. Bishops and priests were among the most outspoken critics of human rights abuses by the military during the country's brutal 36-year civil war. Heeding a call from the Pope, Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo agreed to halt state executions during his administration and on Monday asked the National Assembly to abolish the death penalty altogether. "I believe, as (the Pope's) letter says, that only God can give or take away life," Mr Portillo told a rally on Saturday. . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 13:03 GMT 14:03 UK How the US miners were
rescued
BBC News Online looks at the four-day effort
to rescue nine miners trapped underground in Pennsylvania in the United
States.
 25 July: Rescue teams drill a six-inch hole to supply air to the trapped men. Search begins for a drill large enough to bore a shaft to bring them out. 26 July: Large 30-inch (76 centimetre) drill arrives at the scene. Rescuers begin boring, but the drill bit breaks on hard rock approximately 105ft (32 metres) down.
Rescue workers begin drilling a second hole with other equipment. The first drill bit is later recovered and boring continues on both shafts. 27 July: Drilling continues after two delays to fix minor faults. Drilling is slowed by a layer of hard limestone, and concern grows that efforts to pump floodwater out of the mineshaft are not working. At 1015 local time the drill reaches the trapped miners. Rescuers send in a capsule containing food and a telephone. 28 July: First miner, Randall Fogle, 43, is brought to the surface in a tiny rescue cage, 2ft (66cm) in diameter. Nearly two hours later, the last miner is lifted to safety. . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 23:48 GMT 00:48 UK Timeline: US train
accidents
A head-on crash in
California killed two Sixty people were injured, six critically, when a passenger train was
derailed in the American state of Maryland, about 12 miles from
Washington.
Other recent passenger train accidents in the United States:
Tuesday, 30 July, 2002, 17:14 GMT 18:14 UK Support for military attack on
Iraq
The BBC's Tim Sebastian
met law expert Philip Bobbitt Military action against Iraq is necessary, a leading US academic has
claimed, to prevent them using weapons of mass destruction.
Philip Bobbitt, an expert on US constitutional law, said that military action would "prevent weapons of mass destruction going in to the hands of groups it [the US] cannot deter." In an interview for BBC HARDtalk Mr Bobbitt said he believed that Iraq posed a serious threat to the US. He said: "It's not that Saddam Hussein attacked the Trade Towers, it's that the groups that attacked the Trade Towers exploited vulnerabilities that we in the US, and you here in Britain are powerless to reduce." Threat
But Mr Bobbitt, who has worked as a senior adviser at the White House, the State Department and the Senate, explained that Al Qaeda and countries such as Iraq posed such a threat because of their potential for destruction. He said: "I think the administration has not drawn the link between its concern about what it calls 'rogue states' and the attacks on September 11th. Now, there is a link to be drawn, but I don't think they have." "For five centuries it took a state to destroy another state. Now a small group of persons operating with weapons of mass destruction, international telecommunications, and rapid computation can do what a state had to do in the past." "You cannot deter a group like that if you can't locate them because you can't retaliate against them." Lessons Mr Bobbitt made his comments as speculation continued about whether the US is planning to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power.
But US plans have met with increasing opposition. And Mr Bobbitt acknowledged that confusion about what the US is trying to achieve could lead to some distrust of their policies. He said: "Of course there are lessons to be learned and they not only extend to foreign policy, but to intelligence policy, to our native constitutional law, they extend to alliance policy." "In Europe and perhaps elsewhere people say what possible connection could there be between 19 hijackers, mainly Saudi, and the development of nuclear weapons in Korea or Iraq. And seeing no connection, yes I think they do feel this distrust." The interview can be watched in full on Tuesday 30 July on BBC World and BBC News 24 at the following times: BBC News 24 (times shown in BST) 0430, repeated 2230 BBC World (times shown in GMT) 0330, repeated 0830, 1130, 1530, 1830, 2330 . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 19:44 GMT 20:44 UK 'Mafia boss' held for Olympic
fixing
The French team won
the ice dancing competition An alleged Russian crime boss has been arrested on charges that he
tried to fix certain skating competitions at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt
Lake City.
United States Federal prosecutors said the man, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, was arrested in Italy on charges of trying to influence the judges.
A criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court identified Mr Tokhtakhounov as a "major figure in international Eurasian organised crime". The complaint alleges that he used his influence with members of the Russian and French skating federations to fix the outcome of the pairs and ice dancing competitions at the 2002 Olympics. Controversial judging According to the Associated Press news agency, prosecutors allege that Mr Tokhtakhounov arranged for the Russian judge to vote for the French ice dancing team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat. The pair won a gold medal. In exchange, he is alleged to have been influential in getting the French judge to vote for the Russian figure skating team of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, which also won gold. This latter decision was marked by controversy during the games. The Russian team only beat Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier by the slimmest of margins. A day after the awards were given, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne admitted she had been pressurised by French figure skating President Didier Gailhaguet to put the Russians first. The judges subsequently awarded gold medals to the Canadian team as well, and both Ms Le Gougne and Mr Gailhaguet were suspended from the International Skating Union for three years. Lithuanian protest The Olympic ice dancing competition was also mired in controversy. The Lithuanians, who finished fifth, filed a protest questioning the judging of the competition, claiming they should not have been placed lower than the Italian and Canadian couples, who fell during the final phase of the competition. The International Skating Union rejected the protest. At the time, the Lithuanians said they did not expect to win their appeal but came forward to generate publicity and expose judging inconsistencies. "It was an impetus to do it, but we would not have done it unless there was such a stark realization that something was wrong," said John Domanskis, spokesman for the Lithuanian Olympic team. . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 22:03 GMT 23:03 UK Stranded whales put to death
in US
The surviving whales
were too exhausted to return to sea US marine experts have put down a group of pilot whales after they
swam ashore for a third time, despite efforts to keep them at
sea.
The animals were too ill, exhausted and distressed to return to the sea after they pushed ashore once more on a marshy, remote beach near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. So the decision was made to put down the surviving members of the pod. Local volunteers and holidaymakers had spent two days herding the whales to sea and trying to regulate their body temperature with wet blankets and sheets. "After two days of trying to give these animals any opportunity we could, a decision was made by the veterinarians on site to euthanise those animals that weren't already dead," said New England Aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse. "It's probably one of the harder decisions that anyone can make," he added.
The whales, which were tagged, were found in shallow waters at Eastham, Cape Cod, on Monday. About 15 whales died at the first beaching. Early on Tuesday about 45 surviving whales beached again at Lieutenant Island. Some of the whales died after the second beaching, and those that survived were sunburnt and blistered and clearly distressed - wailing to each other. Rescuers turned them onto their stomachs to prevent them from suffocating before high tide. But the 30 to 35 surviving whales swam ashore again on Tuesday afternoon. According to Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, a total of 60 whales died, including those put to death. Pilot whale pods become stranded fairly regularly as they are sociable animals and like to feed in coastal waters. The Cape Cod region of Massachusetts is a common site for whale beachings as its curved peninsula can trap mammals attracted by its rich source of squid, sand eels and crustaceans which whales like to feed on. . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 20:58 GMT 21:58 UK US judge rejects Cuba
prisoners' claim
About 600
prisoners are being held at Guantanamo Bay A judge in the United States has ruled that two Britons and an
Australian captured fighting with the Taleban in Afghanistan cannot be tried
before a US court.
The men's families had argued that they should have their cases heard in a US federal court because they were effectively being held on US territory at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base in Cuba. But District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the US legal system had no jurisdiction over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Britons Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, and David Hicks, from Australia, have been held at the US naval base, along with nearly 600 other prisoners since last year. Prosecutors had feared that a successful lawsuit would open the way for other prisoners held at the base to make similar claims. . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 11:27 GMT 12:27 UK US mentions the war at
last
In much of the world, a lively debate is going on about whether the United States should attack Iraq.
In America itself, the debate has hardly started. But that could all change from Wednesday, when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins a series of hearings on the issue. The influential committee will hear evidence from expert witnesses, but the Bush administration has declined to take part. For President George W Bush recently, it has been a case of "Don't mention the war" - or at least, "Don't mention Iraq - just warn of the 'threat'". "America must act against these terrible threats before they're fully formed," the president said earlier this month. Evidence While the warlike rhetoric continues, the idea of actually attacking Iraq is still not openly discussed by the administration.
"This is just beginning to raise the issue, what's at stake here," said the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joe Biden. But Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland says the Bush administration should be more forthcoming. "I think the public is waiting for the administration to come forward with a clear and compelling case that it has concluded, with the evidence presented, that Saddam Hussein's regime represents a threat to American lives, to American interests, to regional stability and to global stability." The other big question is not whether to go to war, but how to do it. It is now more than a decade since former President George Bush senior celebrated his overwhelming yet indecisive victory against Saddam Hussein. Split administration So what are the military thinking this time round? "I think the main line of debate is: what is the fastest way that we can have a successful invasion," says Rear-Admiral Stephen Baker, a veteran of the last Gulf War. "How can we ensure absolute success as quickly as we can?" But everything remains up in the air. "There's clear division within the administration," Senator Biden says. "I don't expect we're going to see any action on Iraq in terms of military action anywhere in the near term, meaning between now and November," he adds. And even delaying beyond November would still leave the administration precious little time to mobilise both the American people and world opinion. . . |
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. EUROPE Monday, 29 July, 2002, 23:04 GMT 00:04 UK . . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 08:26 GMT 09:26 UK . European press
review . Newspapers across the continent have plenty to say about the
weekend's air disasters in Ukraine and Russia - a crash at an air show in Lviv,
and another one at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
In Ukraine, the Russian-language daily Segodnya devotes much of its front page to the Lviv air show crash which, it says, "threatens to become the most bloody tragedy ever witnessed first-hand in Ukraine." "Air shock" is the
headline, while the pictures - of the crash and a bloodied little boy - are
repeated in many papers.
The paper charges the organisers with negligence, and argues for a fundamental review of air display safety precautions. The public, it says, should not have been allowed to stand so close to the action. The Italian daily Corriere Della Sera shows the fighter plane engulfed in flames as it crashed onto the airfield, watched by a horrified crowd. The pilot can be seen ejecting above the fireball. Like other newspapers, the Paris daily Le Figaro notes that the crash set a new record, with at least 83 people dead. "It is the deadliest accident ever to have occurred at an air show," the paper says. Blame game On the crash,
Ukraine's Segodnya reports that a technical failure is the most likely
culprit. An expert quoted in the Ukrainian paper says that the pilots are "more reliable than the plane". Russian newspapers
take the same line, with a raft of experts blaming the Su-27
fighter.
Izvestiya quotes officials as saying that the cause was probably engine failure. The paper goes on to criticise Ukraine's aircraft as "obsolete", noting that efforts to keep them flying do not always succeed. However, it predicts that the disaster will be assigned to "the human factor". Recalling an event shortly after 11 September in which a Ukrainian missile downed a Russian passenger flight from Israel, Kommersant says Ukraine's military is at fault. It believes the problems do not only lie with "ordinary officers, but also the command structure". The business daily adds that Ukrainian military reforms will take "many years... to reach even the level of the Russian army". Vremya Novostey also looks at the woes of Kiev's armed forces. It says that the pilots pushed the ageing plane too hard, adding that the crash "leaves no place for lies on the part of the military". Whether it was caused by pilot error or equipment failure, the paper says that the accident shows that military reform is "an absolute must". Bad show Rossiyskaya Gazeta is more critical of the air show's organisers. Whether at
France's Le Bourget or Moscow's MAKS, the paper writes, all demonstration
flights are planned to exclude the possibility of planes falling on the
public.
Expanding on the Russian Government paper's headline - "The show should not continue" - Vienna's Der Standard takes a hard look at air shows in general. It says their safety record is poor, even in countries where standards are high. "There have been dozens of accidents at such events all over the world, and there will be dozens more if we don't put an end to the whole thing," the paper says. Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung agrees that accidents can happen at air shows anywhere, recalling a 1988 accident at Ramstein in Germany in which about 70 spectators were killed. "This is little consolation for the people of the Ukraine, nor can it take away their feeling that there is something fundamentally rotten in their state" the paper says. "It never rains but it pours, the saying goes, but so much combined fatality cannot be solely the result of hazard and chance," concurs the Madrid daily ABC. Sueddeutsche Zeitung adds that Ukraine's crumbling infrastructure is evident, particularly when it comes to mining accidents. "The country with the second largest area in Europe is seen as a classic example of a failed transformation," it says. Narrow escape The Russian
newspapers are less forthcoming about their domestic crash, but
Kommersant points out that the suburbs of Moscow barely avoided a
similar tragedy to the one in Lviv.
It reports on the crash of an empty passenger plane just after taking off from Moscow's main airport, noting how reliable Ilyushin-86s are. The paper says that the casualties - 14 of the 16 crew - could have been 10 times greater had the plane landed on a nearby settlement. The business daily Vedomosti reports that it is the first Il-86 to crash in over 20 years of commercial service. The plane was returning to St Petersburg after a charter flight to the popular Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi and there are fears that the crash will hurt an already weak tourist trade. A tourism spokeswoman told the paper that flights were down by 10%-15% this summer. "Tourists are increasingly afraid to fly," she said. The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions. . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 16:41 GMT 17:41 UK In pictures: Ukraine mourns
crash victims
Ukraine is in mourning after a Soviet-era Su-27 fighter jet crashed
into a crowd at an air show on Saturday, killing at least 83 people, many of
them children.
Hundreds of relatives visited the site on Monday
Ukrainian Orthodox priests led a two-hour service
Some came to pray, others to examine the burnt earth left
behind Many of the dead and injured were children A $2m fund has been set up to help the victims
Military chiefs and pilots have been blamed for the
disaster . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 20:20 GMT 21:20 UK Russian air safety in the
spotlight
Sunday's crash near
Moscow was blamed on a technical fault
In the past, the East-West separation meant that the Soviet Union paid little attention to the opinions of western media and did itself a disservice by ignoring any requests for information about aviation safety. In fact, throughout the 1980s, safety in the Soviet Union - measured in terms of accidents per 100,000 flights and fatalities per million passengers carried - was below the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) average level. It also was equal to or better than those statistics for the United States in all years except in 1986.
It took a while to rebuild the structures, and safety followed the countries' morale to lower levels in the first few years. US intervention An accident in 1994, when the pilot's son was at the controls of an Airbus that crashed in Central Siberia, forced the Russian Government to ask the US Federal Aviation Administration to audit Russian civil aviation. It found that Russia "met international standards, but only just", and issued recommendations to ensure safety improved. Amazingly, despite serious budgetary shortages, the money has always been found to monitor operational and technical aspects of, initially, scheduled passenger flights and later cargo and charter flights.
A result of this action was that Russian civil aviation suffered no casualties from 1997 until mid 2001, when there were two accidents - one due to training breaches, the other to an overloaded cargo aircraft. And the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK), which oversees to varying extents civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States - most of the former Soviet republics - has provided back-up training and supervisory services wherever required to member states lacking in some monitoring capability. ICAO requires each state to comply with international and operational norms, but allows it to use specialists from other countries where necessary, and ICAO and the MAK have established a regulatory training centre in Moscow to meet these needs. Military strain Military training is a separate responsibility. Here budgets have come under severe strain, and both pilot and technical training have suffered, as has the number of hours flown to keep crews up to proficiency.
In the West, display pilots now require a special licence. Last Saturday's horrific accident at an air show in the Ukraine will put pressure for this to be introduced in the CIS also. That incident and two other recent tragedies - the collision of two aircraft over Germany in early July and last Sunday's Ilyushin Il-86 airliner crash - all had very different causes. They will serve to focus attention on aviation operations and training. After the collision over the Swiss border, Russia has at last begun to tell the world that its civil aviation is of international standards in safety. Sometimes its aircraft are not as comfortable as Western models, but they are built to withstand twice the strain of western aircraft in order to cater for the tough winter conditions, and the not very well equipped airports where they operate. . Sunday, 28 July, 2002, 18:48 GMT 19:48 UK Sukhoi Su-27: Dazzling Russian
fighter
The pilots of the SU
27 ejected safely Following the air show crash in Lviv in western Ukraine, Clifford
Beal from Jane's Defence Weekly looks at the history of the Sukhoi Su-27 in the
Ukrainian air force
Considered one of the world's most capable fighter aircraft, the Russian-built Sukhoi Su-27 fighter has amazed spectators at air shows around the world for a decade now. A product of the well-financed Soviet aerospace industry, it entered production in 1985 as the new jewel of the Soviet Air Force and capable of matching the American air force's F-15 Eagle fighter. Both powerful and manoeuvrable, it has nonetheless suffered previous crashes while on display, most recently at the 1999 Paris air show at Le Bourget.
The two-seat Su-30MK that crashed in Paris - a more recent variant of the Su-27UB operational trainer that crashed in Ukraine - had been performing a similar aerobatic manoeuvre in which it failed to come out of a loop, subsequently clipping its tail on the ground. The pilots safely ejected and the aircraft crashed on the field away from spectators. The Su-27 is renowned for its ability to maintain manoeuvrability and extreme control at low air speed, partly a function of its very powerful engines and its slightly aft centre-of-gravity. But like all high-performance military aircraft, aerobatic manoeuvres carried out at low altitude always carry an element of risk because of the small margin for safe recovery in the event of engine or control failure. Safety standards Since the tragedy at Ramstein air base in 1988 where some 70 spectators were killed when three Italian air force MB-339 jet trainers collided in mid-air, tight safety controls have been in place at western air shows to separate crowds from aircraft during aerobatic displays. This does not appear to have been the case at the Ukraine air show.
Investigators in Ukraine will no doubt concentrate on three major factors: the aerobatic routine itself, the condition of the aircraft, and the abilities and actions of the two pilots. It would appear that spectators were lined along at least two sides of the airfield, limiting options for evasive action. Moreover, the proximity of the display itself may have been much closer than would have been permitted in Western Europe. Training and servicing A sophisticated piece of machinery, the Su-27 requires high maintenance. Since independence, the Ukrainian air force has suffered from a severe lack of funds and properly trained personnel. Whereas in the days of the Soviet Union, when fighter engines would be completely replaced after just a few hundred flight hours, today both cash-strapped Russia and Ukraine must service equipment for longer with far fewer spare parts.
The problem is not limited to equipment. Since the end of the Cold War, pilot training and experience has declined dramatically in the countries of the former Soviet Union. According to a recent military report in Ukraine, air force pilots get roughly 20 hours flight time per year, a figure that is over 10 times lower than in most Nato air forces. While the Ukrainian military has tried in the last five years to embrace reform along western lines, including downsizing and professionalisation of its armed forces, it continues to be hampered by the poor state of the economy. Even more damaging, the lack of political reform in Ukraine has limited the influence of those military officers attempting to introduce change. . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 14:37 GMT 15:37 UK Pilots blamed for Ukraine air
disaster
Priests at the
ceremony urged the community to pull together Ukraine's chief prosecutor says "criminal negligence" by pilots and
military officials caused the world's worst air show
disaster.
Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun said the pilots had used an illegal flight path when their Soviet-era Su-27 fighter jet ploughed into the crowd at the Sknyliv air base near Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 83 spectators.
The news came as more than 1,500 Ukrainians gathered at the scene of the accident to attend a memorial service for the victims. On Monday, the Defence Ministry suspended the flights of virtually all military aircraft. Human error At a news conference in the capital, Kiev, Mr Piskun spoke of "circumstances testifying to criminal negligence and careless treatment of responsibilities by officials". "I believe that it is already possible to say that this was military negligence, a special category of crime," he said. Click here to see how the tragedy unfolded "There were many incidents when criminal negligence came into play, when several heads of Ukraine's air force acted criminally... "We believe that the pilots were given the wrong task with violations of safety procedure."
"They used this vehicle incorrectly," he said, adding they could either be detained or put under house arrest pending the outcome of the investigation. On Sunday, President Leonid Kuchma fired the armed forces chief of staff, Petro Shuliak, a day after sacking General Strelnikov. Defence Minister Vladimir Shkidchenko submitted his resignation on Sunday. Grief The Su-27 was performing aerobatics when it clipped the tops of trees before cartwheeling across the air base and ploughing into crowds of spectators. Twenty-three children were among those who died. Nearly 200 people were injured in the crash and officials have warned the death toll might climb. Forensic experts are still trying to identify victims at a city morgue, but the process is slow because many of the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. Hundreds of relatives of the dead and spectators who survived the disaster, clutching carnations and handkerchiefs, streamed into the base on Monday, attending a two-hour memorial ceremony led by Ukrainian Orthodox clerics.Flowers were strewn around the singed turf where the fighter jet exploded. One of the priests conducting the service, Father Zinoviye, called for people to rally around each other. ''Our region
has never experienced such grief,'' he said.
 .. Monday, 29 July, 2002, 18:58 GMT 19:58 UK Kidnaps plague
Chechnya
Kidnap victims have
appeared in hostage videos
Kidnapping in Chechnya really took hold in 1990 as the Soviet Union crumbled, and reached its zenith after the end of the 1994-96 war. In 1997 and 1998, large numbers of professional kidnap groups - some connected to hardline Islamic groups - used ransoms to fund their operations.
But Professor Margot Light, at the London School of Economics, says that although the inter-war period was particularly bad, kidnapping still continues in Chechnya. "It is just that kidnappings don't now involve high-profile Westerners," she told BBC News Online. "But they are still a big problem - tied up with the war itself.
"Meanwhile, on the other side, Chechens deemed to have co-operated with the Russians are kidnapped by rebels." But by far the greatest motivation for kidnapping remains an economic one. "On the Chechen side, kidnappings are almost always for ransom," said Prof Light. "The economy is barely working." The kidnaps have taken their toll on both their victims and coverage of the Chechen conflict in general.
Fear of abduction has increasingly led to foreign journalists staying away. Now, says Prof Light, "even Russian journalists don't go there, it is so dangerous". As kidnapping became less lucrative, kidnappers have concentrated on aid workers. Now the UN has had enough. Its pull-out, in protest at the abduction of the head of a Russian aid group that worked closely with Unicef, is extremely serious said Mr de Waal. "It will affect between half a million and one million people, some quite directly," he said. He estimates that at present several dozen local people are being held by kidnappers. But reliable figures are hard to come by, as non-partisan observers leave in response to the region's continuing lawlessness. . Monday, 29 July, 2002, 14:25 GMT 15:25 UK Turkish MPs demand early
poll
Right-wing leader
Bahceli has led the calls for early polls The Turkish parliament has lodged a formal request for early
elections after a string of resignations plunged the government into
crisis.
A constitutional commission has now two days to respond to the motion - backed by a clear majority of MPs. The driving force behind the call has been Devlet Bahceli, leader of right-wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP) - the largest party in parliament following the mass defections from Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's party. The ailing prime minister would like the poll to be held as scheduled in 2004, warning that anything earlier will harm the economy and slow Turkey's bid for European Union membership. It is very unclear what kind of political constellation the autumn polls would produce. After 18 months of economic slump, the three-party governing coalition is deeply unpopular and could be wiped out. Stubborn resistance If the request for an early poll is approved by the commission, the issue will be brought to a parliamentary vote.
Two parties want to tie a vote on early elections into a vote on reforms designed to facilitate Turkey's negotiations for EU membership. The reforms include replacing the death penalty with life in prison and granting greater rights to the country's estimated 12 million Kurds. The MHP is opposed to both of these. Western fears However early elections are widely seen by the deputies as an exit from the political turmoil which started in early May when Ecevit began to skip his official duties due to his ill health - effectively paralysing the government. A string of MPs and ministers - including some of his closest allies - left the party and the cabinet in protest at his refusal to stand down and make way for a successor. The turmoil in Ankara - a key Western ally - has led to unease in Europe and the United States at a time when Washington is reported to be preparing a military strike against Turkey's southern neighbour, Iraq. There is some speculation that the next set of polls could benefit the pro-Islamic Justice and Development party, which regularly tops opinion polls. . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 15:32 GMT 16:32 UK Deadly seal plague hits
Germany
The virus gives
the animals serious respiratory problems A deadly virus which has already killed thousands of seals in
northern Europe has reached Germany, officials have
confirmed.
Five dead seals found on the north German coast were carrying the highly infectious phocine distemper virus (PDV), which has killed 2,000 seals in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands since May. The fear now is that that the epidemic could reach the proportions seen in 1998, when 18,000 creatures died, decimating the seal population in northern Europe. There is no effective way to stop the spread of the disease, which attacks the animals' respiratory systems. A vaccination programme is widely believed to be unworkable.
German authorities have asked people living along the coast to report a dead seal as soon as they spot one. Some 20-25,000 seals which live in the Wadden Sea, a stretch of water which leads into the North Sea, are deemed to be at risk. Improved conditions Officials are clinging to the hope that improved conditions may give the seals a better chance of fighting off the virus than in the 1998 outbreak. A statement for the German Environment Ministry said their standard of living had improved substantially since 1998. "Experts say their health and their diet is good," the statement said. "But above all, the level of pollution in the North Sea which can weaken the immune system of the animals has sharply decreased since 1998." But the ministry also pointed that even if many seals were to die in this epidemic, the experience of 1998 showed that the population quickly replenished itself. Britain is awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination on two seals discovered at the weekend which both displayed signs of the virus. About 3,000 seals died in Britain during the 1998 epidemic. . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 06:48 GMT 07:48 UK European press
review
The meeting between the leaders of France and Germany attracts
widespread comment in the two countries' papers, while the weekend air crashes
still dominate the news in Ukraine and Russia.
President
Jacques Chirac of France and his prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, were the
guests of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the town of Schwerin, in the
former East Germany, on Tuesday for a summit between the two
countries.
The French Le Figaro says that Chancellor Schroeder "sought to play down the extent of the differences between Paris and Berlin" over the reform of farm subsidies. With Germany going to the polls in September, the paper notes, Mr Schroeder "chose not to spoil what may be his last Franco-German summit". So the "thorny issues" - reform of the common agricultural policy as well as of the union's institutions - were "prudently set aside until the autumn". Therefore, Le Figaro says, the two sides concentrated on things they can agree on, such as the EU's security and defence policy. End of the road? In Germany, however, the papers see little point in papering over the cracks. Die Welt says that France will no longer lead in an enlarged European Union. Behind
"the beautiful facade", the paper says, Paris and Berlin have become estranged
and are no longer willing to settle their disputes by compromise.
This may be caused by the personalities involved, but the paper says the basic problem is that the differences run deeper. "The dispute over agriculture policy is only one of many examples: in the interests of its farmers Paris blocks the necessary reforms in the EU and makes EU enlargement more difficult", the paper says. Mr Schroeder, it adds, cannot accept that. It finishes with a warning: "Further conflicts are to be expected." For its part, Frankfurter Rundschau says the dispute over farm subsidies can't be allowed to delay EU enlargement. If the differences haven't been resolved by December, the paper writes, this "would mean a major European crisis". "In the light of the US's hegemonic diplomacy, this would be a catastrophe", it adds. Back in France, the Nouvel Observateur notes that President Chirac called for "the re-starting" of what he sees as the European Union's "Franco-German engine". But "despite all declarations of intent", the paper believes, "the engine runs a strong risk of staying broken down, at least until Germany's general election". Blame the boss
In Ukraine, the papers are still dominated by the world's worst ever air show disaster. Blame for the accident, in which a Su-27 fighter jet crashed at a military air show, killing over 80 spectators, is still being apportioned, and some dailies target President Leonid Kuchma. "The tragedy was not caused by organizers' negligence, the lack of army funding and not even by the lack of civil control over the armed forces," Vecherniye Vesti declares. "These are all but small facts pointing to our major problem - total chaos in our country, the direct and indirect responsibility for which rests with our supreme commander-in-chief and president, Leonid Kuchma," the newspaper argues. "It is time we understood that it is not defence ministers that are the problem," the paper concludes. "Our major problem is Leonid Kuchma." Ukrayina Moloda also sees faults in the country's
president.
It accepts that, "as befits a head of state", he visited the site of the tragedy quickly, offered sincere condolences and dismissed several leading military figures. But the paper says that "despite the well-played role of the 'nation's father', Ukrainians are growing increasingly dissatisfied with our supreme commander-in-chief". It goes on to demand military reform. "How many more such accidents will have to happen until it is not only society, but also the authorities who see at last the urgent need for change in Ukraine's military machine?" it asks. Far-off fallout The
fallout from the Lviv disaster reaches further than Kiev - thousands of
kilometres east, a Siberian governor has banned exhibition flights without
official permission.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports that the governor of Siberia's Novosibirsk Region has issued the order just days before the region hosts an air show marking 50 years since Russia's air force was first deployed in Siberia. "People are dying more and more often, and not just in the air, but on the ground," the paper quotes Viktor Tolokonskiy as saying. "Protecting them from disaster - that's my civil duty," the governor declares. Leading daily Izvestiya, however, reports that the air show will go on. A senior regional air force official tells the paper that "all responsibility for any emergency situations which may arise during an air show lies with the military". Vladimir Yemelyanov describes what happened in Ukraine as "irresponsible and unprofessional work on the part of the air show's organizers". He assures the paper that in Novosibirsk every single detail was being looked after to ensure public safety. The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions. . Wednesday, 31 July, 2002, 13:23 GMT 14:23 UK Fighting in Chechnya
intensifies
It may have
been the summer's biggest battle
There has been fierce fighting between Russian soldiers and Chechen rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, where the conflict has dragged on for almost two years. The fighting appears to have been the biggest battle of the summer, with the Russians saying they killed up to 30 rebels and the Chechens claiming to have killed 40 Russians.
At the same time, Georgia has accused Russia of sending combat aircraft to raid its territory, on the pretext of attacking Chechen rebels in the mountainous border | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
