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world news Diaranson 7 Juli 2021

6 students among 9 arrested in alleged Hong Kong bomb plot

(AP) — Nine people, in- ocratic freedoms for Hong news briefing that she hopes Britain. In the most glaring ago.
cluding six secondary Kong just as its liberties are the members of the public example of that campaign,
school students, were ar- under threat. Police said will “openly condemn threats police arrested at least seven Also Tuesday, Lam also said
rested in Hong Kong on the group was attempting of violence.” top editors, executives and that an envelope of “white
Tuesday for allegedly plot- to make the explosive triac- journalists of the Apple Daily powder” had been sent to
ting to set off homemade etone triperoxide, or TATP, “They should not be wrongly newspaper, which was an her office. Police said the
bombs in courts, tunnels which has been widely used influenced by the idea that ... outspoken pro-democracy substance was still being ana-
and trash cans as politi- in bombings in Europe and breaking the law is in order, if voice, and froze its assets, lyzed but that they did not
cal tensions rise in the city elsewhere, in a makeshift you’re trying to achieve a cer- forcing it to close two weeks believe it to be dangerous.
where China is tightening laboratory in a hostel. tain cause,” she said. “They
its grip. should not be influenced into
Police accused the group of thinking that they can find
Police said they were de- planning to use the explosive excuses to inflict violence.”
tained on suspicion of engag- to bomb courts, cross-harbor
ing in terrorist activity under tunnels, railways and trash Authorities said they seized
a harsh national security law cans on the street “to maxi- equipment and raw materi-
that Beijing imposed a year mize damage caused to the als used to make the TATP,
ago as part of a crackdown on society.” as well as a “trace amount” of
dissent in the former British the explosive. They said they
colony that has long enjoyed Since the 2019 anti-govern- also found operating manuals
freedoms not seen on the ment protests, Hong Kong and about 80,000 Hong Kong
Chinese mainland. police have arrested several dollars ($10,300) in cash.
people over alleged bomb
Hong Kong authorities have plots and for making TATP, Police froze about 600,000
used the law, enacted in re- including 17 detained that Hong Kong dollars ($77,200)
sponse to anti-government year in overnight raids that in assets that they say may be
protests that rocked the city also seized explosives and linked to the plot. Authorities
in 2019, to arrest many of chemicals. said all nine planned to set
the city’s prominent activists. off the bombs and then leave
Others have fled abroad as a Nine people between 15 and Hong Kong for good.
result. 39 years old were arrested
Tuesday, according to Senior The arrests come as China
If the allegations are true, the Superintendent Li Kwai-wah is increasing its control over
group appears to represent of the Hong Kong Police Na- Hong Kong, despite a prom-
a more radical fringe of the tional Security Department. ise to protect the city’s civil
protest movement, which Hong Kong chief executive liberties for 50 years after the
has demanded broader dem- Carrie Lam said at a weekly city’s 1997 handover from

28 feared dead in plane crash in Russia's Far East

(AP) — A plane carrying plane was on approach for the company that owns the ropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. chatka, Vladimir Solodov,
28 people crashed Tues- a landing in fog and clouds aircraft, Kamchatka Aviation said.
day, apparently as it came when it missed a scheduled Enterprise. According to Russian me-
in for a landing in bad communication and disap- dia reports, none of the six “The site itself is difficult to
weather in Russia’s Far peared from radar, officials The plane was in operation crew members or 22 passen- access, a helicopter can’t land
East, and everyone aboard from the Kamchatka region since 1982, Russian state gers on board survived. The there,” Solodov said in video
was feared dead. said. news agency Tass reported. head of the local government posted on the regional gov-
Alexei Khabarov, director of in Palana, Olga Mokhireva, ernment’s website. “Because
Wreckage from the An-26 The plane “practically crashed Kamchatka Aviation Enter- was among the passengers, of adverse weather condi-
was found on a coastal cliff- into a sea cliff,” which wasn’t prise, told the Interfax news spokespeople of the Kam- tions, high waves, the rescue
side and in the sea near the supposed to be in its landing agency that the aircraft was chatka government said. operation had to be tempo-
airport in the town of Palana, trajectory, according to Ser- technically sound before tak- rarily suspended. It will re-
according to officials. The gei Gorb, deputy director of ing off from the city of Pet- sume tomorrow morning.”
However, no bodies were
found yet, and there was no Authorities plan to deploy
official confirmation of the professional divers and res-
reports. cuers trained for working in
mountainous terrain.
Russia’s state aviation agency,
Rosaviatsiya, said that parts of Solodov added that a group
the plane were found about 3 of government officials in-
miles (5 kilometers) from the cluding Transport Minister
airport’s runway. Part of the Vitaly Savelyev will head to
fuselage was found on the Palana on Wednesday.
side of a mountain, Russia’s
Pacific Fleet told news agen- In 2012, an An-28 plane be-
cies, and another part was longing to Kamchatka Avia-
floating in the Okhotsk Sea. tion Enterprise crashed into
a mountain while flying
A criminal investigation was the same route as Tuesday’s
opened, as is typical. flight. A total of 14 people
were on board and 10 of them
A search-and-rescue mission were killed. Both pilots, who
was underway in the moun- were among the dead, were
tainous area, but the work found to have alcohol in their
was suspended after night blood, Tass reported.
fell, the governor of Kam-