World IN BRIEF : RUSSIA : Hostages Escape Hijacked Plane
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The last hostages escaped a hijacked Russian passenger jet after their fell asleep, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The hijacker had held crew members aboard the Yak-40 jet even after negotiators handed over $500,000 and after an accomplice freed 24 hostages and surrendered. It was the latest in a string of hijackings in southern Russia, a center of crime and unrest since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Armed with a grenade and a knife, the hijackers seized the plane Tuesday just after it left Makhachkala, 960 miles southeast of Moscow.
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