Russian Proton-M carrier rocket crashes in Siberia

A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket failed to deliver a Mexican communications satellite to the designated orbit and crashed inthe Chita region of Siberia on Saturday soon after launch, The RussianInterfax news agency reported.

The agency, quoting a source in Russia's space industry, gave no other details. Other Russian news agencies quoted officials as saying the third stage of the carrier rocket malfunctioned about 500 seconds after its launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.