Russia Mourns 145 Victims of Siberian Air Crash

Russia is observing a day of national mourning on Thursday for the 145 people who died in this week's Siberian air crash, which is the country's worst civil air disaster in several years.

As flags flew half-mast and television stations canceled entertainment programs, investigators sifted through charred wreckage of the TU-154 plane about 18 miles from Irkutsk trying to find clues to Tuesday's disaster.

Shocked relatives of passengers and the crew gathered at Russian airports on Wednesday waiting for flights to the scene of the crash.

``The whole nation shares your sorrow,'' President Vladimir Putin, who had ordered the day of mourning, said in a message of condolence to bereaved families he later repeated on television.

``This catastrophe has broken the destinies of entire families, taking the lives of those they loved.''

Putin ordered Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to provide funds for relatives of victims and commission a report on the safety of Russia's aging civil air fleet.

People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/