NewsTracker Answers for week of Nov. 02, 2015

Q: A Russian charter flight from the popular Sharm al-Sheikh seaside resort crashed  into a remote region the Sinai Peninsula just 20 minutes after takeoff Saturday, killing all 224 people on board. Where is the Sinai Peninsula?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The Sinai Peninsula is part of which country?

A. Egypt

B. Israel

C. Jordan

D. Saudi Arabia


A. The Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt (3100 BC) until the 21st century.  Israel, which borders the peninsula to the east, occupied the Sinai during the 1967 Six-Day War. The territory was returned to Egypt as a result of another war in 1973 and a peace treaty between the nations in 1979.


Q: The Sinai Peninsula is on which continent?

A. Africa

B. Asia

C. Europe


B. The 23,000 square-mile triangular peninsula is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia, as opposed to Africa, serving as a land bridge between two continents.  The Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal separate the peninsula from the rest of Egypt to the west.


Q: The the Airbus A320 jetliner was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia, from the Sharm al-Sheikh resort town at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The resort is on which sea?

A. Arabian Sea

B. Baltic Sea

C. Mediterranean Sea

D. Red Sea


D. The Gulf of Suez to the southwest and Gulf of Aqaba to the southeast of the peninsula are inlets of the Red Sea which is south of the Sinai and leads to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. The Mediterranean Sea is north of the peninsula. St. Petersburg is located about 2,000 miles north on the Baltic Sea.


Q: Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate claimed that its fighters downed airliner to avenge recent Russian strikes on insurgents in which Mideast nation?

A. Iraq

B. Libya

C. Syria

D. Yemen


C. Russia’s military intervened in the past month in Syria to bolster its ally and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid a devastating civil war which has included Islamic State fighters. Both Egypt and Russia dismissed the Sinai jihadists' claim, saying the plane was flying at 31,000 feet before the crash and well above the normal 10,000-foot range of surface-to-air missiles.