Algerian Airliner goes missing with 116 on board

http://online.wsj.com/articles/spains-swiftair-loses-contact-with-air-algerie-flight-1406196420

Air Algérie lost contact with Flight 5017 after takeoff from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as the jetliner headed to Algiers with 116 people on board, Algeria’s state news agency and the plane’s operator said Thursday.

French Secretary of Transport Frédéric Cuvillier told reporters the plane disappeared over Northern Mali, where Islamist militants are fighting the Malian government and French forces. Numerous French nationals were probably aboard the missing plane, Mr. Cuvillier said.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/air-algerie-crash-fidel-castros-3907484

Air Algerie crash: Fidel Castro’s niece Mariela ‘was on doomed Flight AH5017’ with 115 others

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/air-algerie-crash-fidel-castros-3907484#ixzz38PNcrGGi
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/16/uk-russia-cuba-base-idUKKBN0FL1LO20140716

Russia set to reopen Soviet-era spy post on Cuba

(Reuters) – Russia has quietly reached a provisional agreement with Cuba on reopening a big Soviet-era base on the Caribbean island from which it spied in the United States, a Russian security source said on Wednesday.

Confirming a report in the daily Kommersant newspaper which said the deal was agreed in principle during a visit to Cuba last week by President Vladimir Putin, the source told Reuters: “A framework agreement has been agreed.”

At the height of the Cold War, the base at Lourdes, just south of the capital Havana, had up to 3,000 personnel and was the biggest centre Moscow operated abroad for gathering intelligence from radio signals. The base, 250 km (150 miles) from the U.S. coast, was also used to provide communications for Russian ships.

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-agrees-reopen-cuba-spy-110458401.html

Russia ‘agrees to reopen Cuba spy base’