Two air force jets rehearsing aerobatic maneuvers collided near Moscow, killing one stunt pilot and sending one fighter crashing into nearby vacation homes, a military official said. The Su-27 fighters were part of the elite Russian Knights flying group preparing to perform at the MAKS-2009 air show, the largest and most important showcase for Russia’s aerospace industry. The jets collided on Sunday near Zhukovsky airfield, east of Moscow, where the air show opens today. Air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Drik said all three pilots involved ejected. He said rescuers recovered two in stable condition but the third was killed.
■RUSSIA
Eight killed in dam accident
Eight people were killed yesterday and 54 were missing when a turbine room flooded at the country’s largest hydropower station, forcing steel and aluminum plants in Siberia to turn to emergency power. RusHydro, owner of the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant, said damage would run into “billions of roubles” and would take several months to fix. Panicked residents in the shadow of the Soviet-era dam fled when news of the accident spread at 8:15am. Calm was later restored after officials said there was no danger that the dam would burst. Officials said water flooded a turbine room at the dam in the Siberian republic of Khakassia.
■PERU
Gunmen rob foreigners
Police said gunmen robbed 12 foreigners on an ecological tourism trip to the Manu nature reserve on a popular forest route. Authorities said four robbers took an undetermined amount of cash, cameras and video equipment around noon on Sunday but did not harm any of the victims. The incident occurred in the Tres Cruces area of the Cusco region, nearly 600km southeast of Lima. The tour included seven Dutch citizens, two Americans, two Indonesians and an Australian.
■VENEZUELA
Colombian citizens detained
Police on Sunday detained about 40 Colombian citizens, including an employee of the Colombian consulate in Caracas, while they were trying to renew their identity papers, Colombian Consul Maria Elvira Cabello said. The diplomat said the arrests took place when police raided a location where Colombian consular workers were trying to renew the documents of their compatriots living in Venezuela. She said the procedure had been planned since May and had received all necessary approval from authorities. All the identity papers were seized from those detained, Cabello said. “I think it was not the proper way to deal with Colombians, their passports, identity papers, and their computers because this equipment and other consular materials enjoy diplomatic immunity,” she said.
■ISRAEL
Soldiers shoot Egyptian cop
Soldiers mistakenly shot and wounded an Egyptian policeman yesterday along the border between the two countries, the Israeli military said. A routine patrol identified an armed figure at the border before dawn, and when the troops challenged the man, he cocked his weapon, prompting the soldiers to open fire, the army said. The soldiers realized it was an Egyptian policeman only after the shooting, the army said. In Cairo, a security official said the policeman had been hospitalized with a bullet wound in the chest. The official said the bullet came from the Israeli side of the border but that he did not know who had opened fire.
RSS