[ti:Malaysian Airliner Shot Down by Missile in Ukraine] [ar:Christopher Cruise] [al:In The News] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, this is In The News. [00:05.29]All 298 people on a Malaysia Airlines flight died [00:11.91]when a missile apparently struck the plane on Thursday. [00:16.72]It was traveling from Amsterdam,Holland [00:20.42]to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the time. [00:24.56]The wreckage fell over a wide area around Donetsk, [00:30.15]in eastern Ukraine. [00:31.89]Ukrainian government forces are fighting [00:35.34]pro-Russia separatists in that area. [00:38.66]On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama called the incident [00:45.12]an "outrage of unspeakable proportions." [00:49.00]"Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down [00:52.28]by a surface-to-air missile that was launched [00:55.03]from an area that is controlled [00:56.44]by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine." [01:00.09]Mr. Obama spoke from the White House. [01:03.28]He did not say who was responsible for the crash. [01:07.55]But he did note what he called a steady flow of support [01:12.88]from Russia for the separatists. [01:15.64]"This includes arms and training. [01:17.84]It includes heavy weapons and it includes anti-aircraft weapons." [01:24.38]Mr. Obama called for an immediate cease-fire [01:28.36]between the Ukrainian government and the separatists. [01:32.14]He said the two sides must stop fighting to permit an investigation. [01:38.80]U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon led a worldwide call [01:44.47]for an open investigation of the crash. [01:48.25]Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the crash was, [01:52.66]in his words, "not an accident; it's a crime." [01:57.53]And German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, [02:01.53]"There are many indications that the plane was shot down, [02:05.99]so we have to take things seriously." [02:09.81]Malaysia's Transport Minister said [02:13.26]it would be an "outrage against human decency" [02:17.42]if the airliner was shot down on purpose. [02:21.22]The crash of flight MH17 happened four months [02:26.49]after another Malaysia Airlines plane, Flight MH370, went missing. [02:33.38]That plane was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China. [02:38.61]Extensive searches have taken place [02:41.82]across the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. [02:45.82]But it has not been found. [02:48.63]On Thursday, officials from Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said [02:53.84]that MH17 was flying at a height of about 10,000 meters [02:59.79]when a Buk missile struck it. [03:02.80]The Buk is a Russian-made surface-to-air missile [03:07.25]that can hit extremely high targets. [03:10.17]A Malaysia Airlines statement said Flight MH17 lost contact [03:16.99]with Ukrainian air-traffic controllers at 2:15 UTC. [03:23.71]About the same time, social media postings on Twitter [03:28.37]and the Russian website VKontakte claimed [03:31.70]that separatists had shot down an AN-26 military transport plane [03:38.77]near the town of Torez, [03:40.70]not far from the where the passenger plane crashed. [03:44.35]A separatist leader and Russian citizen [03:47.21]known as Igor Strelkov reportedly placed the posts. [03:51.46]The VKontakte posting included a video showing smoke rising [03:58.05]from the fields outside Torez. [04:00.93]It said the military transport was shot down [04:04.85]in the area somewhere near the Progress coal mine. [04:09.28]Later, a new posting on the Vkontatke Website and Twitter replaced it. [04:16.01]The new posting came from Alexander Borodai, [04:19.96]the leader of the separatist People's Republic of Donetsk. [04:24.76]It said a passenger jet had crashed near Torez. [04:29.67]The separatist leader denied involvement in the crash [04:33.36]and suggested that Ukrainian government forces were responsible. [04:39.08]Most of the passengers on the Malaysian plane were Dutch. [04:43.50]Many were scientists heading to an international AIDS conference in Australia. [04:50.61]Emergency workers reported that more than 180 bodies have been located. [04:57.15]Reports conflict about whether the plane's audio [05:00.77]and video recorders have been recovered. [05:04.51]And that's In The News,from VOA Learning English. [05:09.32]I'm Christopher Cruise. [05:12.57]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51VOA.COM