TANGTOU, China
Feb 25 (AFP)
Police threw up a heavy security cordon Thursday around the wreckage of a passenger plane that exploded into low-lying vegetable fields in southeast China killing all 61 on board. All roads into the crash site, in Tangtou township some 15 miles (24 kilometres) to the south of Wenzhou, were blocked by a heavy, uniformed police presence.
The scorched impact crater, some 60 metres (180 feet long), was cordoned off with green ropes while soldiers stood guard at intervals of five metres (20 feet) in the sodden vegetable fields.
Hundreds of local villagers who had gathered near the site said the impact had reduced the fuselage and all passengers into tiny pieces.
�There is nothing that you can recognize as part of an aircraft,� one said as police pushed crowds away from the crater, which was near a sea dyke and around 500 metres (yards) from Tangtou township.
Uniformed People�s Armed Police and soldiers were combing the site for pieces of fuselage and placing them into white plastic sacks for removal from the area.
Body parts of the 61 people on domestic Flight CZ4509 had already been removed following the crash around 16:30 on Wednesday as the plane was on final approach to Wenzhou airport in eastern Zhejiang province.
There were no survivors.
Airport officials put the number of passengers at 51 and the number of crew at 13. The official Xinhua news agency initially confirmed this figure, but then reduced the toll to 50 passengers and 11 crew.
It also indicated the plane had exploded after a crash landing, although initial eye witnesses reported a mid-air explosion and the official China Youth Daily reported a fireball crashing to the ground.
Long motorcades of police cars with wailing sirens were moving swiftly in and out of the wreckage site, where a crater some 60 metres (200 feet) long had been created by the impact of the wreckage.
One local woman who was working in fields close to her home when the explosion hit said she had not noticed the aircraft until she heard a huge noise rip through the area.
�The plane fell down and exploded with a massive bang,� she said.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has launched an emergency inquiry into the disaster and planes arrving at Wenzhou airport early Thursday were packed with officials from the airline and CAAC.
Sergey Matyushenko
ALMATY, Feb 25 (THE GLOBE)
�The main direction of the commission this year will be towards working with organizations emitting shares and to fostering institutional investors,� said the new chairman of the NCS in Almaty. According to Mr. Zholdasbekov, the priorities for 1999 have been determined. These are: i) the creation of mechanisms of defense of the internal market, ii) the attraction of domestic investors to the stock exchange market, iii) ensuring the safety of investments, iv) updating the legal base, v) making transparent the activity of the participants of the stock market.
Analyzing the results of the work of the commission of the last year, Mr. Zholdasbekov noted that the �blue chips� program works, though not as effectively as desired. Pension reform has started. A legal base for the securities market has been created. But all of these positive results are not sufficient to entice greater participation in the investment process, said Azamat Zholdasbekov for three reasons: i) The problem of the emission of non-governmental securities has not been solved. ii) A system of control of joint stock companies concerned in the emission of securities remains to be created. iii) The population of Kazakhstan is not interested in investment into the stock exchange market.
MOSCOW, Feb 25 (AFP)
President Boris Yeltsin welcomed Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to the Kremlin on Thursday and sought to use improved political relations to inject fresh vigour into flagging trade ties.
�We are always heartily glad to see you,� Yeltsin told his guest, calling on him to help �develop friendship with Russia.�
Zhu, for his part, presented Yeltsin with a picture of the Russian leader meeting his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin last November, a gift Yeltsin described as �an excellent present,� the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
The Kremlin chief, who suffered a string of ailments late last year, was forced to host the mini-summit from his hospital suite.
A senior Kremlin official said Yeltsin and Zhu held �very interesting, frank and warm� talks on a wide range of bilateral issues, notably trade, energy and foreign policy.
The two leaders discussed their long-term strategic partnership in the 21st century as well as international cooperation, said Sergei Prikhodko, Yeltsin�s top foreign policy advisor.
However, they bemoaned the failure of entrepreneurs and government officials to build on the sharp improvement in mutual ties witnessed under Yeltsin and Jiang, who have forged a close personal relationship.
�We are lagging behind our real possibilities,� Prikhodko quoted the Yeltsin and Zhu as saying.
A 20 billion dollar bilateral trade target by 2000 has remained a dead letter as the Asian crisis triggered the implosion of Russia�s economy and hurt Chinese exports.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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