Ukrainian airliner disappears

Planes, troops and local farmers in Greece have searched throughout the night for the wreckage of a Ukrainian airliner feared to have crashed into the snow-covered mountains around the northern city of Salonika.

The plane, with more than seventy people onboard, disappeared from radar screens as it was attempting to land in bad weather at the end of a flight from Kiev.

The search is being concentrated around Mount Olympus, fifty kilometres southwest of Salonika, where local villagers reported seeing a bright flash and hearing a loud explosion.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service