Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/349217
J.SCOTTAPPLEWHITE—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Barack Obama speaks about the situation in Ukraine on Friday in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. ByJuliePace The Associated Press WASHINGTON TheUnited States began building a case Friday linking pro- Russian separatists to the shocking downing of a passenger jet in Ukraine. A somber President Barack Obama declared the deaths of those on board, includ- ing at least one American, an "outrage of unspeak- able proportions." Obama said the U.S. be- lieves the Malaysia Air- lines plane was felled by a surface-to-air missile launched from an area near the Ukraine-Russia border that is controlled by Kremlin-backed separat- ists. Even as he cautioned that the exact circum- stances were still being determined, the president turned his sights on Rus- sia, saying the insurgents would not be capable of carrying out such an attack without Moscow's support. "We know that they are heavily armed and they are trained, and we know that that's not an accident," Obama said. "That is hap- pening because of Russian support." The president spoke shortly after Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassa- dor to the United Nations, outlined preliminary evi- dence against Russia and the separatists during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Coun- cil. Power said separat- ists were spotted Thurs- day with an SA-11 anti-air- craft missile at a location close to the site where the plane came down and that they had boasted on social media sites about shooting down a plane, then later deleted those posts. Power joined Obama in calling for an immediate international investiga- tion, and she warned that the separatists and those supporting them would have "good reason to cover up evidence of their crime." The U.S. has called for ev- idence from the crash site to remain in Ukraine un- til investigators determine who is responsible. The American killed in the incident was identified asQuinnLucasSchansman. Officials said they were still workingtoconfirmwhether any other U.S. citizens were on board the plane. For Obama, the downed plane adds new complexity to U.S. efforts to quell the months-long conflict be- tween Russia and Ukraine. Increasingly stringent eco- nomic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe, including a new round of penalties announced a day before the plane was shot down, have done little to change Russian President Vladimir Putin's approach. USbuildingcase against separatists US RESPONSE TO CRASH By Peter Leonard The Associated Press ROZSYPNE,UKRAINE World leaders called for an imme- diate cease-fire in eastern Ukraine on Friday and de- manded speedy access for international investigators to the crash site of the Ma- laysia Airlines jetliner shot down over the country's battlefields. The strong words came amid the contrasting im- ages of emergency work- ers and off-duty coal min- ers fanning out across pic- turesque sunflower fields searching for charred pieces of wreckage from the Boeing 777. The attack Thursday af- ternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations — including vacationers, students and a large con- tingent of scientists head- ing to an AIDS conference in Australia. President Barack Obama called for an immediate cease-fire between Ukrai- nian government forces and pro-Russia separatists. He also called for a credible investigation. "The eyes of the world are on eastern Ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out," Obama said at the White House. U.S. intelligence author- ities said a surface-to-air missile brought down Ma- laysia Airlines Flight 17 as it traveled from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. U.S. Am- bassador Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Coun- cil in New York on Friday the missile was likely fired from a rebel-held area near the Russian border. The Ukrainian govern- ment in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia gov- ernment that Ukraine ac- cuses of supporting the reb- els all denied shooting the plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels. After holding an emer- gency session, the U.N. Se- curity Council called for "a full, thorough and indepen- dent international investi- gation" into the downing of the plane. Russian President Vlad- imir Putin said both sides in the Ukrainian conflict should put down their weapons and hold peace talks. On Thursday, Pu- tin blamed Ukraine for the crash, saying Kiev was re- sponsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking east- ern regions. But he didn't accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and didn't address the key question of whether Russia gave the rebels such a powerful mis- sile. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry released a video purporting to show a truck carrying the Buk missile launcher it said was used to fire on the plane with one of its four missiles apparently missing. The ministry said the footage was filmed by a police surveillance squad at dawn Friday as the truck was heading to the city of Krasnodon toward the Rus- sian border. There was no way to in- dependently verify the video. Ukraine's state aviation service closed the airspace Friday over two border re- gions gripped by separatist fighting — Donetsk and Lu- hansk — and Russian air- lines suspended all flights over Ukraine. Access to the sprawling crash site remained diffi- cult and dangerous. The road into it from Donetsk, the largest city in the re- gion, was marked by five rebel checkpoints, with doc- ument checks at each. A commission of around 30 people, mostly officials representing the Organiza- tion for Security and Coop- eration in Europe, traveled to the crash site Friday af- ternoon in the first such visit there by an interna- tional delegation. "No black boxes have been found ... we hope that experts will track them down and create a picture of what has happened," Donetsk separatist leader Aleksandr Borodai said. Yet earlier Friday, an aide to the military leader of Borodai's group said au- thorities had recovered eight out of 12 recording devices. Since planes usu- ally have two black boxes — one for recording flight data and the other for recording cockpit voices — it was not clear what the aide was re- ferring to. It was possible he was referring to a variety of computer systems. The crash site was spread out over fields between two villages in eastern Ukraine — Rozsypne and Hrabove. In the distance, the thud of Grad missile launchers be- ing fired could be heard Fri- day morning. MALAYSIAN PLANE World calls for Ukraine cease-fire a er crash DMITRY LOVETSKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Rescue workers walk at the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, eastern Ukraine, on Friday. By Mike Corder The Associated Press THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS The human cost of the downing of Malaysia Air- lines Flight 17 hit home around the world Friday, upending scores of fami- lies and small communities spanning half of the planet, from a Dutch fishing village to an Australian soccer club and a Dubai cake store. Relatives and colleagues paid emotional tribute to the dead. Students gath- ered to pray for lost friends, and even Tour de France cyclists paused for a mo- ment's silence in memory of the 298 people killed in Ukraine. The victims came from 11 countries and all walks of life. They included an acclaimed AIDS researcher from Amsterdam, a nun and teacher from Syd- ney, a Dutch senator and a World Health Organization spokesman. "Today, the stories are emerging about individual travelers," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. "Youngsters, a big group of scientists, sometimes whole families who yes- terday afternoon got on board and unknowingly headed toward their hope- less fate." Because the plane took off from Amsterdam, most were Dutch headed for Kuala Lumpur. But others were from elsewhere in Eu- rope, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. One was a dual U.S.-Dutch citizen, Ma- laysia Airlines said. They left behind relatives searching for answers and clinging to memories. "It's a black day," said Ron Peter Pabellon, a Fili- pino cake maker in Dubai who fears he lost an aunt, uncle and two cousins, one of them his best friend. "I want to see (them) with my own eyes because I don't want to accept. I don't want to believe." The crash heaped trag- edy upon tragedy for one Australian family that also had relatives aboard the Malaysian Airlines plane that vanished in March. Kaylene Mann's brother Rod Burrows and sister- in-law Mary Burrows were on Flight 370, which is be- lieved to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean but has never been found. On Friday, Mann learned that her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk, was killed on Flight 17. "It's just brought ev- eryone, everything back," said Greg Burrows, Mann's brother. "It's just ... ripped our guts again." Several passengers on Flight 17 were traveling to Melbourne, Australia, for a major international AIDS conference. The United Nations or- ganization UNAIDS said the crash claimed "some of the finest academics, health care workers and activists" working on the disease. The Academic Medical Center hospital in Amster- dam said two of its staff members, including re- nowned AIDS researcher Joep Lange, a former pres- ident of the International AIDS Society, and his col- league Jacqueline van Ton- geren were believed to have perished. "Joep was a man who knew no barriers," the hos- pital said. "He was a great inspiration for everybody who wanted to do some- thing about the AIDS trag- edy in Africa and Asia." Karlijn Keijzer, a 25-year- old Dutch graduate student at Indiana University, was mourned by rowing com- munities on both sides of the Atlantic. The Amsterdam stu- dent rowing club Skoll said on its website that Keijzer died with another rower from the club, Laurens van der Graaff, on their way to a vacation together. In the close-knit fishing village of Volendam, near the Dutch capital, flowers were laid outside a florist's shop. The shop's owner and her boyfriend were among the victims. A handwritten note taped to the storefront above a bunch of orange roses, read: "Dear Cor and Neeltje. This is unwanted, unbelievable and unfair. Rest in peace. We will never forget you." Dutch AIDS activist Pim de Kuijer, once a political intern of former Dutch law- maker Lousewies van der Laan, was also killed. WORLD Je t cl ai me d vi ct im s fr om 1 1 co un tr ie s THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Widi Yuwono, the brother of Yuli Hastini, rear, holds a photograph of his sister's family, showing Hastini, right, her Dutch husband John Paulissen, le , and their two children, Arjun and Sri, who were on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17on Friday at his residence in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 527-2151 to find out how. Through the Newspapers in Education program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. •SHOFFORTHODONTICS • DOLLING INSURANCE • GUMM'S OPTICAL SHOPPE • HOOKER CREEK INC. • CALIFORNIA WALNUT COMPANY • LEPAGE COMPANY INC. • MODERN CLEANERS • OLIVE CITY QUICK LUBE • WALMART • TEHAMA CO. DEPT. 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