MOSCOW — A Russian passenger jet with 171 people aboard crashed in Ukraine today after sending a distress signal, emergency officials said.

The Pulkovo airlines Tupolev 154, en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar screens over Ukraine, Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Stadnikova said.

Minutes later, the ministry said wreckage from the plane was found on the ground.

Another ministry spokesman, Irina Andriyanova, said that 30 bodies had been found. She said there were 171 people aboard: 160 passengers, including six children, and 11 crew members.

The plane disappeared from radar screens two minutes after the crew sent an SOS signal, Stadnikova said.

LONDON — Suspects accused in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners arrived in court today for their first appearance before a judge on terrorism charges.They arrived by police convoy to the City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London — the first time they were seen in public since being arrested Aug. 10.Eight people were charged with two offenses each — conspiracy to commit murder and preparing acts of terrorism. One person, a 17-year-old, was charged with possession of articles that could be used to prepare a terrorist act and two people were charged with failing to disclose information that could help prevent a terrorist act.Another person was also released without charge, while 11 remain in custody but have not yet been charged.Nine of those charged are from London, according to a Bank of England list of suspects whose assets were frozen following the arrests.Investigators warned that the case was still being investigated but confirmed for the first time that the plot involved the manufacture of explosives, which would then be assembled and detonated on board airliners.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea lashed out today at ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills and warned that it could take retaliatory action amid renewed concern that the communist nation may be preparing to test a nuclear bomb.The North's latest rhetorical salvo came after President Bush spoke Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao about how to persuade the North to return to deadlocked international talks on its nuclear weapons program.The U.S. and South Korea launched the annual joint military exercises on Monday, which the North had previously said would be considered a declaration of war. Some 29,500 U.S. troops remain in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.