Crashed Azerbaijani plane was riddled with holes after incident over Russia, report says

Crashed Azerbaijani plane was riddled with holes after incident over Russia, report says
A Russia-bound Azerbaijani jet which crashed in Kazakhstan in December had probably been damaged by “external objects” before it hit the ground, an investigation said on Feb. 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 04 February 2025
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Crashed Azerbaijani plane was riddled with holes after incident over Russia, report says

Crashed Azerbaijani plane was riddled with holes after incident over Russia, report says
  • A senior Azerbaijani government official told Reuters that the external impact referred to in the report was from a Russian surface-to-air missile
  • “The Azerbaijani side possesses a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile, which was extracted from the aircraft and identified through international expertise“

ASTANA: An Azerbaijani passenger plane that crashed in December after being diverted from Russia to Kazakhstan had suffered external damage and was riddled with holes in its fuselage, according to a report published on a Kazakh government website on Tuesday.

Thirty-eight people were killed when the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed on Dec. 25 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after re-routing across the Caspian Sea from southern Russia.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in December the plane had been damaged by accidental shooting from the ground in Russia. Moscow has not confirmed this.

Following the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a rare apology to Aliyev for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin did not say Russia had fired at the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.

The preliminary report was issued under global aviation rules designed to draw lessons to prevent future accidents, rather than assigning blame or liability.

It was cautiously worded and did not say what had caused the extensive damage to the plane, including its stabilizers, hydraulics and trim systems.

But it included photographs showing the port side of the tail section was punctured with numerous holes. Also pictured were fragments that it described as “foreign metal objects” removed from the left stabilizer and hydraulic system.

A senior Azerbaijani government official told Reuters that the external impact referred to in the report was from a Russian surface-to-air missile.

“The Azerbaijani side possesses a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile, which was extracted from the aircraft and identified through international expertise,” the source said.

It was the first time that a Baku government source has claimed to have physical proof that Russia shot down the plane, a Brazilian-manufactured Embraer E190. No comment was immediately available from Russian officials late on Tuesday evening.

Russia says it has assigned its own investigation to the most experienced experts and that actions are being taken to establish the cause and circumstances of the incident.

’PASSENGERS ARE LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS’

The plane had been flying from Baku to Grozny in southern Russia, where the Kremlin said Ukrainian drones had been attacking several cities at the time.

Twenty-nine people survived the crash-landing in Kazakhstan. Aliyev has hailed the pilots, who died, as national heroes. The Azerbaijani leader has said that blame lies with Russian individuals, and that Baku demands justice.

The report said that at the start of the incident, the cockpit voice recorder identified the sound of two impacts in the space of 25 seconds. Two minutes later, the pilot reported to air traffic control that he thought the plane had suffered a bird strike.

After a further five minutes, he said the aircraft was losing control.

Several other airports were discussed as possible landing sites for the stricken plane before the crew decided to head to Aktau in Kazakhstan, which required them to fly east across the Caspian Sea.

“So, we have this situation, oxygen is running out in the passenger cabin, which means an oxygen tank exploded there, I think,” the pilot reported. “So there is a smell of fuel, some passengers are losing consciousness, give us permission to go at a lower altitude.”

The plane transmitted a distress signal while approaching Aktau. It collided with the ground there an hour and 12 minutes after the pilots first reported a problem.

Azerbaijan’s transport ministry, commenting on the report, said the plane had been fully airworthy but was damaged due to the impact of “external objects.”

It highlighted the report’s finding that it was not until eight minutes after the initial impacts that Russian air traffic controllers initiated a protocol that bans aircraft from flying in areas which are being subjected to drone attacks.


Flash floods kill 6 in Myanmar-China border town

Flash floods kill 6 in Myanmar-China border town
Updated 5 sec ago
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Flash floods kill 6 in Myanmar-China border town

Flash floods kill 6 in Myanmar-China border town
  • Monsoon floods in a rebel-held Myanmar town on the country’s mountainous border with China have killed six people, a spokesman for the armed group controlling the area said Wednesday
YANGON: Monsoon floods in a rebel-held Myanmar town on the country’s mountainous border with China have killed six people, a spokesman for the armed group controlling the area said Wednesday.
The northern town of Laiza bordering China’s Yunnan province has reported flash flooding since early Monday, when muddy waist-high waters began to stream through the streets.
Laiza is a stronghold of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has for decades commanded control of its own ethnic enclave and emerged as one of the most powerful factions in Myanmar’s civil war.
“A lot of water flowed down the mountain to the river,” said KIA spokesman Naw Bu.
“The flow of water was too strong and destroyed areas surrounding the river,” he added. “Six people were killed in the flood and 100 houses were destroyed.”
Rescue operation had begun on Wednesday, he said, but were being hampered by road blockages.
“All of the roads have been damaged and the roads disappeared in some areas,” said one resident, who declined to be named for security reasons. “The water rose suddenly.”
More than 3.5 million people are currently displaced in Myanmar amid the civil war sparked by a 2021 coup, many sheltering in temporary camps, leaving them exposed to the elements.
The resident said flooding was “terrible” around local camps for the displaced where some shelters had been swept away and people had been wounded.
Myanmar is in the midst of its monsoon season when daily deluges are common.
But scientists say hazardous weather events are becoming more frequent and severe around the world as a result of human-driven climate change.

Italy to approve world’s largest suspension bridge

Italy to approve world’s largest suspension bridge
Updated 13 min 20 sec ago
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Italy to approve world’s largest suspension bridge

Italy to approve world’s largest suspension bridge
  • Italy’s government is to give final approval Wednesday to a 13.5-billion-euro ($15.6-billion) project to build the world’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the mainland

ROME: Italy’s government is to give final approval Wednesday to a 13.5-billion-euro ($15.6-billion) project to build the world’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the island of Sicily to the mainland.

Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said a ministerial committee will back the state-funded bridge over the Strait of Messina, marking a “page in history” following decades of planning.

The bridge has been designed with two railway lines in the middle and three lanes of traffic on either side, with a suspended span of 3.3 kilometers (2.05 miles) — a world record — stretching between two 400-meter (1,300 feet) high towers.

Due for completion by 2032, the government says the bridge is at the cutting edge of engineering, able to withstand high winds and earthquakes in a region that lies across two tectonic plates.

Ministers hope it will bring economic growth and jobs to two impoverished Italian regions — Sicily and Calabria on the mainland — with Salvini promising the project will create tens of thousands of jobs.

Yet it has sparked local protests, over the environmental impact and the cost that critics say could be better spent elsewhere.

Some critics believe it will never materialize, pointing to a long history of public works announced, financed and never completed in Italy.

The bridge has had several false starts, with the first plans drawn up more than 50 years ago.

Eurolink, a consortium led by Italian group Webuild, won the tender in 2006 only to see it canceled after the eurozone debt crisis. The consortium remains the contractor on the revived project.

This time, Rome has an added incentive to press ahead — by classifying the cost of the bridge as defense spending.

Debt-laden Italy has agreed along with other NATO allies to massively increase its defense expenditure to five percent of GDP, at the demand of US President Donald Trump.

Of this, 1.5 percent can be spent on “defense-related” areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure. Rome is hoping the Messina bridge will qualify, particularly as Sicily hosts a NATO base.


China tackles chikungunya virus outbreak with wide range of measures as thousands fall ill

China tackles chikungunya virus outbreak with wide range of measures as thousands fall ill
Updated 19 min 4 sec ago
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China tackles chikungunya virus outbreak with wide range of measures as thousands fall ill

China tackles chikungunya virus outbreak with wide range of measures as thousands fall ill
  • More than 7,000 cases of the disease have been reported as of Wednesday, focused largely on the manufacturing hub of Foshan near Hong Kong
  • State television has shown workers spraying clouds of disinfectant around city stree

TAIPEI: An outbreak of the chikungunya virus in China has prompted authorities to take preventive measures from mosquito nets and clouds of disinfectant, threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water and even deploying drones to hunt down insect breeding grounds.

More than 7,000 cases of the disease have been reported as of Wednesday, focused largely on the manufacturing hub of Foshan near Hong Kong, which has reported only one case. Numbers of new cases appear to be dropping slowly, according to authorities.

Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes and causes fever and joint pain, similar to dengue fever, with the young, older people and those with pre-existing medical conditions most at risk.

Chinese state television has shown workers spraying clouds of disinfectant around city streets, residential areas, construction sites and other areas where people may come into contact with virus-bearing mosquitos that are born in standing water.

Workers sprayed some places before entering office buildings, a throwback to China’s controversial hard-line tactics used to battle the COVID-19 virus.

People who do not empty bottles, flower pots or other outdoor receptacles can be subject to fines of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,400) and have their electricity cut off.

The US has issued a travel advisory telling citizens not to visit China’s Guangdong province, the location of Donguan and several other business hubs, along with countries such as Bolivia and island nations in the Indian Ocean. Brazil is among the othe rcountries hit hard by the virus.

Heavy rains and high temperatures have worsened the crisis in China, which is generally common in tropical areas but came on unusually strong this year.

China has become adept at coercive measures that many nations consider over-the-top since the deadly 2003 SARS outbreak. This time, patients are being forced to stay in hospital in Foshan for a minimum of one week and authorities briefly enforced a two-week home quarantine, which was dropped since the disease cannot be transmitted between people.

Reports also have emerged of attempts to stop the virus spread with fish that eat mosquito larvae and even larger mosquitos to eat the insects carrying the virus.

Meetings have been held and protocols adopted at the national level in a sign of China’s determination to eliminate the outbreak and avoid public and international criticism.


Two killed in Russian attack on holiday camp, Kyiv says

Two killed in Russian attack on holiday camp, Kyiv says
Updated 23 min 15 sec ago
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Two killed in Russian attack on holiday camp, Kyiv says

Two killed in Russian attack on holiday camp, Kyiv says
  • The Kremlin claims that the central Zaporizhzhia region is part of Russia

KYIV: A Russian attack on Wednesday that set ablaze a holiday camp in central Ukraine killed two people and wounded another dozen, local authorities said.

The central Zaporizhzhia region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia and is cut through by the front line, has been targeted in increasingly frequent and deadly Russian attacks.

The emergency services posted images showing firefighters putting out flames in single-story cottages and the bodies of those killed and hurt in the attack on the blood-stained ground.

The regional governor said two people were killed and that 12 were wounded, including four children.

“There’s no military sense in this attack. It’s just cruelty to scare people,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, adding that hundreds had been left without electricity after Russian attacks further south.

Russian forces separately killed a man born in 1959 in the embattled town of Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub in the Donetsk region that Russia also said it annexed, according to local authorities.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from Moscow, which launched the invasion of Ukraine early 2022 and denies its forces target civilians.


Cuba activists say detained on anniversary of 1994 anti-Castro protest

Cuba activists say detained on anniversary of 1994 anti-Castro protest
Updated 26 min 31 sec ago
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Cuba activists say detained on anniversary of 1994 anti-Castro protest

Cuba activists say detained on anniversary of 1994 anti-Castro protest
  • Nearly five years after Castro’s death, historic protests shook the island on July 11, 2021, when thousands took to the streets, resulting in one death, dozens injured and hundreds arrested
  • The government claims those marches were also orchestrated by Washington

HAVANA: Activists, journalists and relatives of jailed dissidents say they were briefly detained or prevented from leaving their homes by state security agents Tuesday on the anniversary of the “Maleconazo,” the largest protest Fidel Castro faced during his rule.

On August 5, 1994, hundreds of people took to the streets of Havana’s Malecon waterfront to protest, an event that triggered the rafter crisis during which many Cubans fled by sea to the United States.

The government attributed the protests to incitement by Radio Marti, a Washington-funded station that broadcasts news into Cuba.

Nearly five years after Castro’s death, historic protests shook the island on July 11, 2021, when thousands took to the streets, resulting in one death, dozens injured and hundreds arrested. Many protesters remain behind bars.

The government claims those marches were also orchestrated by Washington.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the “Maleconazo” anniversary was a reminder that “there will always be dark forces lurking against a genuine Revolution in difficult moments,” posting a photograph on X of Castro confronting protesters in 1994.

Tuesday saw “surveillance, house arrests, arbitrary detention, and selective Internet shutdowns,” according to Cubalex, a Miami-based NGO.

Manuel Cuesta Morua, a dissident who promotes democratic transition in Cuba, told AFP via WhatsApp that since early morning he had been “besieged by the police” in a “type of house arrest, without a court order.”

The government “activated its repressive apparatus” following the “police pattern” applied on sensitive dates, said Yoani Sanchez, director of independent newspaper 14ymedio.

She said her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, also a journalist for the outlet, “was detained for a couple of hours in Havana.”

Independent journalist Camila Acosta told AFP that a state security officer had been stationed at the entrance of her house early in the morning.

Among others in similar situations reported by Cubalex were representatives of the Ladies in White rights group and the father of a young man imprisoned for participating in the July 2021 protests.