Desolate images from Taal Volcano show horses and cows buried in ash - CNN

Ignoring government warnings to keep away, a number of residents who lived by the foot of the volcano have gone back to tend or rescue their animals.

Stark pictures show pigs, horses, cows, and birds -- their hair, fur and feathers coated with thick ash -- being carried to relative safety, while Taal Volcano, the second most active in the Philippines, smoulders in the background.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said Wednesday morning that the volcano remains at alert level four out of a possible five, meaning an "explosive eruption is possible within hours to days."

The volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, began erupting on Sunday, sending ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air and prompting large-scale evacuations.

Mirra Lipaopao, 27, said she didn't hear the rumblings of the volcano but at around 5 p.m. saw the mud and charcoal-like matter rain down.

"I panicked," she told CNN from a gymnasium that has been turned into an evacuation center in Tanauan. "I grabbed my partner and kid to get out of the house and we just ran as far as we could."

Lipaopao said they went back to their home on Monday and found it was covered in ash and mud. They began cleaning but successive tremors jolted the ground so they returned to the shelter.

Three days after the eruption began, volcanic activity around Taal is ongoing. Fountains of lava generate dark gray, steam-laden plumes up to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) high. Fissures or cracks have opened up in several areas and 466 earthquakes have been recorded since Sunday. Volcanologists warn that further eruptions are possible.

"These new strong, continuous earthquakes that we are now experiencing are due to fissuring, which means that there really is magma that is still making its way out of Taal," Mariton Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring and eruption at PHIVOLCS said on Tuesday.

Those still within or returning to the immediate dangerous zone within a 14-kilometer (8.7 miles) radius around the volcano risk tremors, fissures and the threat of a sudden pyroclastic flow.

"As soon as you have lava being erupted into the system, it just takes some water infiltrating to create an explosive system. Or for the later magma to be more gas-charged that it is currently," said David Phillips, head of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Other hazards include potential mudslides caused by rain washing piles of unconsolidated ash and the threat of the volcano's slopes slumping into the lake, which could cause a tsunami.

"There is any number of hazards associated with volcanoes. The risk of any one of those might be fairly low but it has shown significant activity lately -- so it's time for caution," said Phillips.

Almost half a million people live within the 14 kilometer (8.7 miles) dangerous zone and PHIVOLCS has requested a "total evacuation" of everyone in this area, and issued advisory warnings for those in a larger area of 17 kilometers (10.6 miles).

Around 44,000 people from Batangas and Cavite provinces have sought shelter in 217 temporary evacuation centers set up by authorities. The total number of evacuees could be higher, with some choosing to stay with family members and relatives in other parts of the country.

Some towns, such as Talisay on the banks of Lake Taal, have been placed under lock down by police and fire services, and evacuations are being enforced, according to National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesperson Mark Timbal.

"The advice to people who are trying to go back is to follow the call of the government and the agencies, and that is to avoid going back," Timbal said.

One big concern for those in the vicinity is the potential health risks of breathing in the toxic volcanic ash -- which carries microscopic shards of glass -- that has blanketed everything in sight.

"(The shards of glass) are hazardous to lungs," said Joseph Michalski, director of the Earth and Planetary Science division at the University of Hong Kong. "You don't want stuff like that in your lungs. It can get lodged in there and make you quite ill."

International aid group Save the Children said in a statement that small children in evacuation centers were suffering from respiratory illnesses such as colds and coughs.

In the city of Tanauan about 730 people are staying in a gymnasium that has been converted into an evacuation center. Families are living in cramped conditions and sleeping on the hard floor.

The sudden eruption on Sunday caught people off guard and many families fled wearing the clothes they were in and carried little to no possessions.

Because of the ongoing threat of another, bigger eruption, no one knows when they will be able to return home or what they will find when they get there.

Many of their livelihoods have been destroyed.

Timbal said that activity had been recorded at the volcano as early as March last year and that residents and local government units were aware that "a state of preparedness" was in place. But "the speed of escalation was unexpected," he said.

Some locals living on or near the volcano, many of them poor laborers or farmers, made money from offering horse rides to tourists. Others built their livelihoods farming the fertile soils that are associated with many volcanoes or fishing tawilis or "live sardines" only found in Batangas province.

The volcano is surrounded by a lake, which is a popular attraction and many of the towns in the vicinity are tourism hot spots. There are several amusement parks, lakeside resorts and yacht clubs nearby.

The holiday town of Tagaytay, which lies close to the water's edge, is a popular getaway for Manila residents who often take boats onto the lake and hike up the volcano.

"Many of these landscapes are very beautiful and people want to go visit them," said Phillips. "It's beautiful but it's also potentially deadly -- it's that fatal attraction."

CNN's Yasmin Coles contributed to reporting from Manila, Philippines.

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2020-01-15 07:53:00Z
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The latest on the US-Iran crisis - CNN International

This new decade's consequential first weeks began with the United States openly targeting and killing a foreign military leader for the first time since World War II. They ended with the tragic, unintended cost of conflict — Iran admitting it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board.

In an extraordinary mea culpa on Iranian state television Saturday, the commander of the unit responsible said "I wished I was dead," when he realized that what his unit thought was a cruise missile was actually a plane.

Ukraine is demanding a full investigation and compensation for the victims — mostly Iranian, Canadian and Ukrainian — who died when the airliner was shot out of the sky, hours after Iran launched a number of missiles at two bases housing US troops in Iraq.

Now what? How are the families of the passengers and crew compensated for this unbearable loss? And how do US and Iranian government leaders, now in direct and open military confrontation for the first time since Iran's Islamic Revolution, map a route out of this crisis?

Read the rest of Amanpour's analysis here.

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2020-01-14 12:56:00Z
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Philippine volcano could erupt 'within hours or days' as 40,000 evacuate, schools shut down - USA TODAY

John Bacon USA TODAY

Published 10:18 AM EST Jan 14, 2020

Schools and government offices closed and the city of Tagaytay was rocked by scores of tremors Tuesday as Philippine's Taal volcano spewed lava and ash a half mile into the sky.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology set the "alert level" at four, meaning a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days. It advised residents across much of the country to guard against the effects of heavy and prolonged ashfall.

Almost 40,000 people from the Taal area were living in 198 evacuation centers with no timetable for going home, the government said. Many never will.

Renato Solidum, who heads the volcano institute, said authorities were closely monitoring the speed in the rise of magma, an important factor in determining whether the volcano will have a strong eruption or settle down. 

“As of now, we don’t see activities slowing down and the earthquakes still continue," Solidum said.

'We need help': Passengers stranded on Guam as volcanic eruption cancels Manila flights

Not everyone was fleeing. In Tagaytay, a few miles north of Taal, many of the city's 70,000 residents warily watched and waited, sweeping ash from their homes and cars.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned businesses nationwide not to hoard facemasks as ash-laden clouds rolled across the archipelago, darkening the air in the capital, Manila, 40 miles to the north. Most schools in the city of almost 2 million were closed due to poor air quality that kept people in their homes.

The government warned that “unreasonably” high prices would bring stiff criminal charges, The Manila Times reported.

"If you hoard them I will be forced to raid your business," said Duterte, who visited to the Taal area Tuesday. "For those who cannot afford it, I will give it free."

No deaths have been reported due to the volcano, which has been rumbling for weeks but began erupting Sunday. But at least six people have been treated for respiratory ailments in Tagaytay, officials said.. And the nation's Agriculture Department said the volcano has already killed 2,000 head of livestock.

Local lawmaker Lawrence Fortun called on the government to provide “outright grants with no repayment provision” instead of loans to farmers “who already lost everything” to the ash.

“They cannot return to the volcano island, so they have to be relocated," he told the Philippine News Agency. "It is feasible for the government to implement a program for housing and distribution of farmlands."

Fortun said the government also must aid in relocating fishing families in villages surrounding nearby Laguna de Bay.

The volcano institute warned airlines to "avoid airspace around Taal Volcano as airborne ash and ballistic fragments from the eruption column pose hazards."

Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport struggled with hundreds of delayed or canceled flights affecting 80,000 passengers. General Manager Ed Monreal said airport was handling about half its normal number of flights Tuesday, encouraging news after the airport was shut down by ashfall on Sunday and barely operational Monday.

"We are on the road to recovery," he said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

New Zealand: Dad dies from injuries suffered during volcano eruption'Our people are panicking': Taal volcano in Philippines gushes lava, spews ash more than 60 miles into Manila

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2020-01-14 13:37:05Z
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Residents urged not to return home as Philippines volcano continues to spew ash, lava fountains - CNN

The Taal Volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, began erupting on Sunday, sending ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air and prompting warnings of a possible "explosive eruption" and large-scale evacuations.

As of Tuesday, almost 20,000 people from Batangas and Cavite provinces have sought shelter in 118 temporary evacuation centers set up by authorities. The total number of evacuees is likely to be higher, with some choosing to stay with family members and relatives in other parts of the country.

Officials, however, said a number of residents were beginning to return to their homes close to the volcano to tend farms, livestock or fetch personal belongings.

Many people depend on the lake and land around the volcano for their livelihood. Their dilemma is whether to risk their lives by returning or their primary sources of income by staying in a shelter for an unknown period of time.

"If you were this person and think 'well all I know for sure is I have three cows, seven goats and some soy beans and I don't go back and take care of them, I know I'm screwed,' than someone telling you to stay away for two weeks and maybe nothing happens -- you're in trouble anyway," said Joseph Michalski, director of the Earth and Planetary Science division at the University of Hong Kong.

There are two concentric zones of concern around the volcano. Around 459,000 people reside within a dangerous zone within a 14-kilometer (8.6 miles) radius around the volcano, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), while more than 930,000 people live in a wider 17-kilometer (10.5 miles) danger zone.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has requested a "total evacuation" of everyone within the larger 17-kilometer (10.5 miles) radius around the volcano.

Mariton Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring and eruption at PHIVOLCS said residents within the immediate radius would be at risk of tremors, fissures and the threat of a sudden pyroclastic flow.

The institute recorded 335 earthquakes in the area of the volcano since Sunday and said more activity is expected in the next few days.

"These new strong, continuous earthquakes that we are now experiencing are due to fissuring, which means that there really is magma that is still making its way out of Taal," Bornas said.

"PHIVOCS strongly reiterates the need for the evacuation of Volcano Island, Taal Lake and the high-risk areas surrounding the volcano ... located within the immediate 14-kilometer radius from the main crater," she continued.

Eruption difficult to predict

Activity at the volcano continued through Tuesday. Lava fountains generated dark gray steam-laden plumes that reached 800 meters (2,624 feet) high, according to the institute. Volcanic lightening was also visible.

PHIVOLCS said that new vents had opened up on the volcano's northern flank and fresh ashfall had landed on nearby towns.

Photos from the eruption show ash mixing with rain, creating a thick black sludge that blanketed cars, streets, and homes in some towns. Ash is even heavier than snow, meaning excessive pile-ups, especially when mixed with rain, can cause roofs to collapse.

In a briefing with the media on Tuesday, PHIVOLCS director Renato Solidum said they cannot definitively tell when the eruptions will stop.

The alert level for the volcano remains at four, meaning an "explosive eruption" could happen in the coming hours or days. Its highest alert level is five, indicating an eruption is taking place.

But predicting what will happen, or when, is fraught with difficulty. When the Taal Volcano erupted in 1754 it lasted six months. The deadliest eruption took 1,335 lives in 1911, and it lasted a few days.

"There is no smoking gun or mathematic indicator of if a volcano erupts or when," said Michalski of Hong Kong University.

Signals that eruptions are imminent or that there is activity going on include the frequency, location and depth of earthquakes, the water temperature of the lake increasing, and gas released from cracks or fissures.

"All these things, these activity increases, tell you that -- man, I'm getting out of here. Something is happening. But none of this says exactly what will happen in exactly what time frame," Michalski continued.

Ghost towns filled with ash

Federal authorities are helping the response and evacuation operation. The army sent 20 military vehicles and 120 personnel to help affected residents, and the secretary of national defense said helicopters were on standby to evacuate people.

Aid organizations like the Red Cross are assisting on the ground by sending rescue vehicles and supplies.

Richard Gordon, Chairman of the Philippine Red Cross said evacuated areas look like "ghost towns" with houses "filled with ash."

"There's been some rain, many have collapsed already," Gordon said. "If you live in the area you'd probably be terrified."

In Batangas and Cavite towns, power is down due to heavy ash collecting on the electricity lines and there is no fresh water, Gordon said.

Evacuation centers include basketball courts, gyms and schools and are not designed for large-scale evacuations.

Red Cross teams on the ground are working to provide water tankers, ambulances, hot meal vans, and masks, as well as providing psychological support and setting up 70-bed wards in heavily affected areas to care for people with respiratory problems caused by the ash.

"The situation there is very dusty, and certainly it gets into your lungs and can create long-term damage," said Gordon. "We are advising people to close their windows with a damp cloth. People with respiratory illness or cardiovascular problems, they should move far away from the volcano to Manila or other provinces."

The ash fall has also damaged crops in the area such as corn and coffee, and continues to threaten fish stocks, said Agriculture Secretary William Dar. Batangas province supplies Metro Manila with 40% of its harvest of fish, including tawilis or "live sardines" only found in the province.

A potential eruption could also bring long-term consequences for the area's economy.

The volcano is surrounded by a lake, which is a popular attraction -- meaning many of the towns in the vicinity are tourism hot spots. There are several amusement parks, lakeside resorts and yacht clubs within the 17-kilometer zone.

The holiday town of Tagaytay, which lies close to the water's edge, is a popular getaway for Manila residents who often take boats onto the lake and hike up the volcano.

On Sunday, the volcanic ash spread as far as Quezon City north of Manila, prompting the suspension of all flights at the capital's international airport. By Tuesday, normal operations resumed, according to the airport's general manager Ed Monreal, though it's possible flights may be suspended again if Taal's activity increases.

The airport remains congested with people trying to get on flights, Monreal added.

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2020-01-14 12:21:00Z
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Iran says arrests made after downing of Ukrainian plane that killed 176 on board - The Washington Post

Atta Kenare Afp Via Getty Images An Iranian cleric walks past a poster honoring the victims of a Ukrainian passenger jet accidentally shot down in the capital last week, Jan 13, 2020.

ISTANBUL — Iran said Tuesday that arrests had been made in the downing of a Ukrainian plane that Tehran admitted was mistakenly intercepted, as the president called for a special court to investigate the crash that set off days of anti-government protests.

Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, said Tuesday that “some individuals” had been arrested over the past three days after “extensive investigations,” but did not provide any detail about the identities of the suspects or say how many people had been detained.

The downing of the plane, which killed all 176 on board, last week occurred during a hair-trigger standoff between the United States and Iran, after a U.S. drone strike killed Iran’s powerful Quds Force commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, earlier this month.

Tehran retaliated against the United States last Wednesday, firing more than a dozen ballistic missiles at facilities in Iraq hosting U.S. troops.

[Iranians are furious at their regime. But Trump still bans them.]

In the hours after those attacks, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 with a surface-to-air missile, a move it blamed on “human error.” Listed among the dead were 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, including the crew. Most, if not all, of the Canadians were reported to be of Iranian origin or dual nationals.

Iranian officials initially denied reports that the plane was brought down but on Saturday admitted that the Revolutionary Guard, which maintains military bases in the area of the crash, had shot it down by mistake.

Over the next few days, protests flared on the streets of Tehran and other cities, led by students criticizing the missile strike and chanting rare denunciations of Iran’s leadership, forcing the government on the defensive.

In a speech on Tuesday, President Hassan Rouhani addressed the crash at length, calling for a special court “with a high-ranking judge and dozens of experts” to investigate. “This is not a normal case and the whole world will follow the case in our court,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks posted on his official website.

“Our people know that this accident was the result of an error and mistake, but who was involved and what circumstances led to the accident?” he said, directing blame in part at the United States, who he said had “inflamed the atmosphere and made the situation abnormal, threatened and took our loved ones from us.”

“All of this is true, but it does not mean that we should not address all the root causes of the incident,” he added. “It is not just the one who pressed the button, but rather there are others, and I want this matter to be explained to people honestly.” Rouhani also appeared to fault military leaders for waiting days to announce that the plane had been shot down, and urged the authorities “to explain to the public the whole process.”

Read more

Iranians protest for third day over downed airliner amid reports of gunfire by security forces

‘Four embassies’: The anatomy of Trump’s unfounded claim about Iran

U.S. commanders at al-Asad base believe Iranian missile barrage was designed to kill

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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2020-01-14 11:09:00Z
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Residents urged not to return home as Philippines volcano continues to spew ash, lava fountains - CNN

The Taal Volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, began erupting on Sunday, sending ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air and prompting warnings of a possible "explosive eruption" and large-scale evacuations.

As of Tuesday, almost 20,000 people from Batangas and Cavite provinces have sought shelter in 118 temporary evacuation centers set up by authorities. The total number of evacuees is likely to be higher, with some choosing to stay with family members and relatives in other parts of the country.

Officials, however, said a number of residents were beginning to return to their homes close to the volcano to tend farms, livestock or fetch personal belongings.

Many people depend on the lake and land around the volcano for their livelihood. Their dilemma is whether to risk their lives by returning or their livelihoods by staying in a shelter for an unknown period of time.

"If you were this person and think 'well all I know for sure is I have three cows, seven goats and some soy beans and I don't go back and take care of them, I know I'm screwed,' than someone telling you to stay away for two weeks and maybe nothing happens -- you're in trouble anyway," said Joseph Michalski, director of the Earth and Planetary Science division at the University of Hong Kong.

There are two concentric zones of concern around the volcano. Around 459,000 people reside within a dangerous zone with a 14-kilometer (8.6 miles) radius around the volcano, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), while more than 930,000 people live in a wider 17-kilometer (10.5 miles) danger zone.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has requested a "total evacuation" of everyone within the larger 17-kilometer (10.5 miles) radius around the volcano.

Mariton Bornas, chief of volcano monitoring and eruption at PHIVOLCS said residents within the immediate radius would be at risk of tremors, fissures and the threat of a sudden pyroclastic flow.

The institute recorded 335 earthquakes in the area of the volcano since Sunday and said more activity is expected in the next few days.

"These new strong, continuous earthquakes that we are now experiencing are due to fissuring, which means that there really is magma that is still making its way out of Taal," Bornas said.

"PHIVOCS strongly reiterates the need for the evacuation of Volcano Island, Taal Lake and the high-risk areas surrounding the volcano ... located within the immediate 14 kilometer radius from the main crater," she continued.

Eruption difficult to predict

Activity at the volcano continued through Tuesday. Lava fountains generated dark gray steam-laden plumes that reached 800 meters (2624 feet) high, according to the institute. Volcanic lightening was also visible.

PHIVOLCS said that new vents had opened up on the volcano's northern flank and fresh ashfall had landed on nearby towns.

Photos from the eruption show ash mixing with rain, creating a thick black sludge that blanketed cars, streets, and homes in some towns. Ash is even heavier than snow, meaning excessive pile-ups, especially when mixed with rain, can cause roofs to collapse.

In a briefing with the media on Tuesday, Director of PHIVOLCS Renato Solidum said they cannot definitively tell when the eruptions will stop.

The alert level for the volcano remains at four, meaning an "explosive eruption" could happen in the coming hours or days. Its highest alert level is five, indicating an eruption is taking place.

But predicting what will happen, or when, is fraught with difficulty. When the Taal Volcano erupted in 1754 it lasted six months. The deadliest eruption took 1,335 lives in 1911, and it lasted a few days.

"There is no smoking gun or mathematic indicator of if a volcano erupts or when," said Michalski of Hong Kong University.

Signals that eruptions are imminent or that there is activity going on include the frequency, location and depth of earthquakes, the water temperature of the lake increasing, and gas released from cracks or fissures.

"All these things, these activity increases, tell you that -- man, I'm getting out of here. Something is happening. But none of this says exactly what will happen in exactly what time frame," Michalski continued.

Ghost towns filled with ash

Federal authorities are helping the response and evacuation operation. The army sent 20 military vehicles and 120 personnel to help affected residents, and the secretary of national defense said helicopters were on standby to evacuate people.

Aid organizations like the Red Cross are assisting on the ground by sending rescue vehicles and supplies.

Richard Gordon, Chairman of the Philippine Red Cross said evacuated areas look like "ghost towns" with houses "filled with ash."

"There's been some rain, many have collapsed already," Gordon said. "If you live in the area you'd probably be terrified."

In Batangas and Cavite towns, power is down due to heavy ash collecting on the electricity lines and there is no fresh water, Gordon said.

Evacuation centers include basketball courts, gyms and schools and are not designed for large-scale evacuations.

Red Cross teams on the ground are working to provide water tankers, ambulances, hotmeal vans, and masks, as well as providing psychological support and setting up 70-bed wards in heavily affected areas to care for people with respiratory problems caused by the ash.

"The situation there is very dusty, and certainly it gets into your lungs and can create long term damage," said Gordon. "We are advising people to close their windows with a damp cloth. People with respiratory illness or cardiovascular problems, they should move far away from the volcano to Manila or other provinces."

The ash fall has also damaged crops in the area such as corn and coffee, and continues to threaten fish stocks, said Agriculture Secretary William Dar. Batangas province supplies Metro Manila 40% of its harvest of fish, including tawilis or "live sardines" only found in the province.

A potential eruption could also bring long-term consequences for the area's economy.

The volcano is surrounded by a lake, which is a popular attraction -- meaning many of the towns in the vicinity are tourism hot spots. There are several amusement parks, lakeside resorts and yacht clubs within 17-kilometer zone.

The holiday town of Tagaytay, which lies close to the water's edge, is a popular getaway for Manila residents who often take boats onto the lake and hike up the volcano.

On Sunday, the volcanic ash spread as far as Quezon City north of Manila, prompting the suspension of all flights at the capital's international airport. By Tuesday, normal operations resumed, according to Airport General Manager Ed Monreal, though it's possible flights may be suspended again if Taal's activity increases.

The airport remains congested with people trying to get on flights, Monreal added.

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2020-01-14 10:21:00Z
52780550627871

Iran plane downing: 'Several people detained' for shooting down airliner - BBC News

Several people have been detained in Iran over the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane with a missile, the country's judiciary says.

Spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said investigations into the incident were continuing, but provided no details.

President Hassan Rouhani said the probe would be overseen by a "special court".

Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 was brought down shortly after taking off from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board.

Most were Iranian and Canadian citizens.

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For the first three days after the crash, Iran denied that its armed forces had shot down the plane and suggested there had been a technical failure.

But as evidence mounted, the Revolutionary Guards said the operator of a missile defence system had mistaken the aircraft for a US cruise missile and fired at it.

President Rouhani stressed that the "tragic event" should not be blamed only on the individual who "pulled the trigger".

"Iranian armed forces admitting their mistake is a good first step," he added. "We should assure people that it will not happen again."

Iran's air defences had been on the highest state of alert before the shooting because the country had just fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.

The admission of responsibility provoked widespread anger in Iran and protesters took to the streets in the capital and several other cities to denounce its clerical rulers, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC on Tuesday that he was "glad" Iran had acknowledged making a "terrible mistake" in shooting down the plane.

"It's good that they've apologised. The most important thing now is that tensions in the region calm down," he added.

"I was in Oman just at the weekend, talking to people in the region and they don't want a military conflict between the West and Iran."

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Mr Johnson said the next step for Iran was to "repatriate in a dignified way" the bodies of the passengers and crew of flight PS752, who included three Britons.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said on Monday that five of the countries that had citizens on board the airliner - Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sweden and an unnamed country - would meet in London on Thursday to discuss possible legal action.

He said the "grieving nations" would work out what steps to take individually and collectively to "bring the perpetrators to justice and how we can repay those families who have suffered".

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2020-01-14 09:25:23Z
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