Merkel: talk of Russia sanctions after plane incident 'premature'

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday it was too soon to make any decisions about imposing tougher sanctions against Russia after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine.

"Regarding sanctions, I'd like to point out that the events with the plane, as far as I remember, were not even 24 hours ago and at the moment we need to sort out an independent investigation. So it's perhaps premature to draw conclusions before we have access to the remains of the plane," she said.