MOSCOW: Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 97, officials said.
Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Katyn forest of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
The crash devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments. On board were the army chief of staff, national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three lawmakers, the Polish foreign ministry said.
Although initial signs pointed to an accident with no indication of foul play, the death of a Polish president and much of the Polish state and defense establishment in Russia en route to commemorating one of the saddest events in Poland's long, complicated history with Russia, was laden with tragic irony.
Reflecting the grave sensibilities of the crash to relations between the two countries, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally assumed charge of the investigation. He was due in Smolensk later Saturday, where he would meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was flying in from Warsaw.
``This is unbelievable - this tragic, cursed Katyn,'' Kaczynski's predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, said on TVN24 television.
It is ``a cursed place, horrible symbolism,'' he said. ``It's hard to believe. You get chills down your spine.''
Andrei Yevseyenkov, spokesman for the Smolensk regional government, said Russian dispatchers asked the crew to divert from the military airport in North Smolensk and land instead in Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, or in Moscow because of the fog.
While traffic controllers generally have the final word in whether it is safe for a plane to land, they can and do leave it to the pilots' discretion.
Air Force Gen. Alexander Alyoshin confirmed that the pilot disregarded instructions to fly to another airfield.
``But they continued landing, and it ended, unfortunately, with a tragedy,'' the Interfax news agency quoted Alyoshin as saying. He added that the pilot makes the final decision about whether to land.
Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said there were 97 dead. His ministry said 88 of whom were part of the Polish state delegation. Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Piotr Paszkowski, said there were 89 people on the passenger list but one person had not shown up for the roughly 1 1/2-hour flight from Warsaw's main airport.
Some of the people on board were relatives of those slain in the Katyn massacre. Also among the victims was Anna Walentynowicz, whose firing in August 1980 from the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk sparked a workers' strike that spurred the eventual creation of the Solidarity freedom movement. She went on to be a prominent member.
``This is a great tragedy, a great shock to us all,'' former president and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said.
The deaths were not expected to directly affect the functioning of Polish government: Poland's president is commander in chief of its armed forces but the position's domestic duties are chiefly symbolic. Most top government ministers were not aboard the plane.
PM to meet Obama tomorrow to get drift of Indo-US ties
WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will get a first-hand sense of where President Barack Obama is taking the US-India relationship and his road map for the AfPak region when he meets the American President here on Sunday ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by Washington starting Monday.
Singh is scheduled to be Obama’s first bilateral meeting (at 1.45 p.m.) on a day the US President typically likes to reserve for his young family and an occasional appearance at a church. The engagement is followed by Obama’s meetings with the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazabayev (3.00 p.m.), South Africa’s Jacob Zuma (4.00 p.m.), Pakistan’s Yousef Raza Gilani (5 p.m.) and Nigeria’s Goodluck Johnson (5.45 p.m.).
The bilats with two ''new'' nuclear powers and two countries which voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons programme underlines Obama’s pursuit of greater nuclear security through a summit meeting that has been elevated by his pro-active approach to nuclear weapons reduction but undermined by the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahi not to attend.
Yet the White House has high expectations from the two-day Summit which, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will be the largest assembly of world leaders hosted by an American President since the 1945 San Francisco conference which founded the UN.
"We are trying to make this Summit the beginning of sustained international effort to lock down the world's vulnerable nuclear materials within four years and reduce the possibility that these materials will find their way into the hands of terrorists," Clinton said in a preview of the meet she gave in a speech at the University of Louisville, Kentucky on Friday.
Singh, who arrives in Washington D.C. on Saturday night, is also scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with Nazabayev on Sunday. No bilateral meetings are scheduled with Pakistan’s Gilani although the two will inevitably cross paths during the summit, in part because they are also slated to meet at the Saarc meeting in Thimphu, Bhutan, later this month.
American and Indian officials have strenuously countered the growing chorus in the commentariat that there is a drift, if not a downslide, in US-India ties, but the two leaders will have an opportunity to can the chatter on Sunday in course of an open-ended meeting where nuclear security is subsumed by larger security issues in the neighborhood.
Singh is slated to make a statement on national action on nuclear security at the summit, and ahead of the meet, India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has thrashed out related issues at a meeting of “sherpas” presided over by Gary Samore, White House Coordinator for WMD Counter-Terrorism and Arms Control.
The sherpas’ meeting finalized documents for the summit and a text of the communique to be issued at the end of the meet that will enjoin countries to endorse a pledge to take steps both at national and international level to strengthen nuclear security and prevent terrorists and criminal groups from gaining access to atomic weapons.
Most of the messaging from the summit is directed at ''outlier'' states such as Iran and North Korea even as Washington continues to publicly gloss over the situation in Pakistan, the country widely seen as being most vulnerable to nuclear hi-jinks despite self-congratulatory certification from Islamabad and endorsement of that from Washington. Most analysts don't buy into it.
''Pakistan has taken serious measures to protect the crown jewels of its national security but it lives in a perilous time. If there is a nightmare nuclear security scenario in Pakistan today it is probably an inside the family job that ends up in a nuclear Armageddon in India,'' Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar who helped frame the Obama administration’s AfPak policy said in a preview of the summit, pointing to the familial ties between the Pakistani military and the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for the attack on Mumbai.
When President Obama meets again with Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani at the nuclear summit he should press for Pakistan to break up the LeT for good ''even if it disrupts family harmony,'' Riedel advised. Even though it is Iran which is in the cross-hairs of the Washington establishment, the intersection of terrorism and nuclear vulnerability is unique to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, although the current administration is stacked with non-proliferation and arms control hardliners (Samore himself is a leading light) there is a sense of acceptance that India’s unique, exceptional status as a de factor nuclear power cannot be rolled back and New Delhi will adhere to the rules of the nuclear club as a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
So with that issue out of the way, the scheduled 45-minute Singh-Obama meeting, their first after a State dinner the US President hosted last winter, is expected to span regional and global security issues and a broader range of trade and economic issues.
An Obama directive issued last December to his administration mandarins to press for resolution of India-Pakistan issues caused a minor kerfuffle in the analysts’ community for its implied pressure on New Delhi to initiate talks, but Indian officials have been firm in responding that Singh has been ahead of the national mood in trying to forge peace with Islamabad.
If anything, they insist, Pakistan has been a dodgy respondent to international pressure to end its patronage of extremist groups, choosing to only selectively go after groups inimical to the state - something that Riedel and other regional experts keep pointing out.
Resignation is a closed chapter: Chidambaram
Calling his resignation episode a closed chapter, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said he decided to quit because the CRPF came under his charge but that does not mean state governments have no role in tackling the Maoists.
Chidambaram said in the horrific tragedy in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh hit the CRPF whose 74 personnel were killed. "It (CRPF) is under my charge. This tragedy has happened under my watch.
"Therefore, I said the buck stops at my desk. It does not mean that the state governments have no role. They have a role, they acknowledge it, recognise and according to me, all the state governments are fully aware of this responsibility."
When a journalist told him that his score card has been neat in the Ministry and whether Dantewada attack was a blot on it, he said "any attack is indeed a blot".
The Home Minister said it was an intra-Chhattisgarh operation and not an inter-state operation. The exercise was planned by the State Inspector General of Police and DIG and DIG of CRPF.
It was conveyed to the Police Headquarters and they were aware of the exercise, he said adding "but something went wrong. Something went very badly wrong".
He said precious lives were lost and the government has appointed an inquiry committee to go into it. "Let the report of the inquiry committee come and we will take corrective action."
Asked about the role of the Centre in anti-naxal operations, the Home Minister said the Central government's role, according to the mandate given to the Ministry of Home Affairs, is to provide paramilitary forces to state governments to help them carry out anti-naxal operations to regain control over the area where the Naxals are dominating and to restore civil administration for development.
"I have said this many times and I have said this three days ago in Jagdalpur (in Chhattisgarh) that this is our role and state governments have an important role to play.
"I think all the Chief Ministers recognise that they have an important role to play," he said.
India would play role in Afghanistan 'with or without US'
Washington: Amid talk of the US looking for a strategy to exit Afghanistan, India made it clear that it would continue to play a role in the war-torn nation 'with or without America' as it has crucial stakes in the stability of country on its periphery.
Ahead of the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama during which Afghanistan will figure, sources said India's policy on Afghanistan will be determined by its own interests and not by what others do.
Singh will be here on a four-day visit to attend Nuclear Security Summit on April 12-13.
"We will play a role in Afghanistan with or without the US because Afghanistan is in our immediate periphery and we will do all to protect our periphery," sources said.
Dinakaran to Gangtok? We are not a dumping ground, says Bar
Even I say nobody is above the law. You ask anybody, they will say nobody’s above the law,” said Chief Justice of Karnataka P D Dinakaran today reacting to Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily’s comments.
Moily, when asked about Justice Dinakaran reportedly not going on leave despite being asked to by a Supreme Court collegium, was quoted as saying “nobody’s above the law”.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Justice Dinakaran, facing an impeachment probe following allegations of landgrab and impropriety, said that reports of his transfer to the Sikkim High Court were only being circulated by the media. “Only journalists are reporting it,” he said.
He said it was the prerogative of the Chief Justice of India alone to decide on him. “The issue of the Minister’s comments is being twisted by the media. I know the Cabinet Minister and the media is putting words in his mouth. This is not a healthy sign. I will not believe such a statement was made. He is most respectable,” Justice Dinakaran said. “I am not here to waste anyone’s time on concocted allegations.”
Justice Dinakaran has been in the eye of a storm since allegations first surfaced against him in September last year. He stopped attending court duties in December when the impeachment motion was moved in the Rajya Sabha.
While the SC collegium is said to have decided to transfer Justice Dinakaran to Sikkim, it’s unclear what the collegium intends to do about J&K High Court Chief Justice Barin Ghosh who was also recently shifted to Sikkim HC as CJ. According to the warrant of transfer issued by the President, Ghosh has been given time till April 12 to take oath at Sikkim.
The Sikkim Bar Association held an emergency general house meeting and decided to boycott Dinakaran in case he took over as CJ. It sent a protest letter to the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.
“Sikkim is not a dumping ground. Justice Dinakaran should not be transferred to Sikkim High Court. We take strong exception and object to Sikkim being undermined repeatedly and identified as a condemned place,” the letter says.
“Is our HC a dumping ground where the collegium can send all tainted judges? If Dinakaran is not fit to continue as CJ of Karnataka, how can he be fit to lead our HC?” said Association president D R Thapa.
In September 2005, former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice B K Roy, who had a major tiff with his brother Judges in the Guwahati High Court where he was shifted from Chandigarh, was transferred to Sikkim HC. In January 2007, the collegium recommended the transfer of Gujarat HC Judge B J Shethna to Sikkim as a punishment for an alleged scuffle with brother Judge, P B Majumdar. However, Shethna resigned citing “personal reasons.”
The Sikkim High Court has a sanctioned strength of just three Judges, including the Chief Justice and a pendency of less than 100 cases.
Business News
Air passenger traffic up by 20%: Mallya
Bangalore: The Indian aviation industry, which suffered a slump in the wake of the global economic slowdown has been witnessing a resurgence with a 20 per cent increase in air passenger traffic, Chairman of Kingfisher Airlines Vijay Mallya said.
The civil aviation industry, which was impacted to a great extent by global meltdown in 2008-09, has seen a "revival, a resurgence post that period, with the passenger traffic increasing by 20 per cent" he said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the two-day national convention on "Frontiers of Aeronautical Technologies", organised by Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) on the occasion of its 61st AGM here today.
Mallya, also President of AeSI, highlighted the urgent need to create Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) centers in the country as several airlines were going to international centres to conduct the MRO tests.
He further called for setting up a National Aeronautics Commission to bring all research and development in aeronautics under one umbrella.
"A proposal in this regard has already been submitted to the Centre but the project has not taken off. This is a high priority programme which needs to be pursued", Mallya said.
He said government and private sector must partner with each other not only in creating civil aviation infrastructure but also to address critical issues such as high taxation, input costs and regulations, faced by the industry.
Lamenting that flying clubs in the country had almost become redundant, Governor H R Bhardwaj stressed the need to have revive these clubs and also establish more flying clubs to train pilots domestically.
Sensex touches 18K, adds 241 pts
Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex continued its upward march for the ninth straight week, gaining another 241 points to end at 17,933.14 after crossing the 18,000-level for the first time after 25 months on sustained foreign fund inflow.
The 30-share Sensex resumed steady at 17,693.66 and shot up to 18,047.86 before concluding the week at 17,933.14, a net gain of 240.52 points, or 1.36 per cent, from its last weekend's level.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) 50-share Nifty too continued its northward journey adding 71.25 points, or 1.35 per cent, to end at 5,361.75 from last weekend's close.
Index heavy-weight Reliance Industries rose by 2.77 per cent on strong Q4 March 2010 results. Capital goods pivotals spurted on renewed buying. Power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) shot up by 5.98 per cent.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pumped in more than Rs 24,000 crore in the equity market during the current year mainly after the Budget, according to market regulator SEBI's data.
Food inflation rose to 17.70 per cent for the week ended March 27, fuelling expectations that the RBI may further tighten rates in its annual monetary policy on April 20.
The market is entering an important period of quarterly earnings, with IT bellwether Infosys kick-starting the reporting season on Tuesday.
ULIP ban on 14 insurance majors: SEBI
Mumbai: Market regulator SEBI banned fourteen major private insurance companies, including SBI Life, ICICI Prudential and Tata AIG, from raising money from public for any Unit Linked Insurance Products (ULIP).
While passing the order late tonight, SEBI said the entities have not obtained any registration from the regulator though the ULIPs launched by them had an investment component in the nature of mutual funds.
"I hereby direct the entities...not to issue any offer document, advertisement, brochure soliciting money from investors or raise money from investors by way of new or additional subscription for any product (including ULIPs) having an investment component in the nature of mutual funds, till they obtain the requisite certificate of registration from SEBI," said Prashant Saran, wholetime SEBI member in an order.
The other insurance companies against whom SEBI passed an order are Aegon Religare Life, Aviva Life, Bajaj Allianz, Bharti AXA, Birla Sunlife, HDFC Standard Life, ING Vysya Life, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life, Max New York Life, Metlife India and Reliance Life.
The order said ULIPs launched by the insurance companies were prima facie found to be akin to the mutual fund schemes.
While the SEBI regulates mutual funds and their schemes, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) oversees functioning of insurance companies.
Sports News
Suman powers Deccan to 6-wicket win over Chennai
NEW DELHI: Tirumalasetti Suman (55) struck his back-to-back Indian Premier League half-century as Deccan Chargers scored a thumping six-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings on Saturday.
Suman, who hit an unbeaten 78 in his side's seven-wicket win over Bangalore two days back, played sheet anchor with a sensible 44-ball innings which was laced with four boundaries and two sixes as Deccan chased down the modest target of 139 with five balls to spare.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings made a modest 138 for eight thanks mainly to Suresh Raina's 42-ball 52 after opting to bat at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium at Jamtha.
Deccan, who notched up their fifth win from 11 matches, began their run-chase on a shaky note but recovered later thanks to Suman and Andrew Symonds who made a 22-ball 27 down the order.
Captain Adam Gilchrist (7) was back in the pavilion in the fifth at team score of 32. Three balls and as may runs later, the other opener Monish Mishra departed for a 18-ball 21 and Deccan were in a spot of bother at that stage.
Rohit Sharma could contribute just eight and it was left to Suman and Symonds to repair the innings which the duo did with a 46-run stand for the fourth wicket in 32 balls.
Symonds, who also hit an unbeaten half-century in Deccan's win against Bangalore in their last match, and Dwayne Smith took their home with a 32-run stand for the unfinished fifth wicket from three overs as Deccan scored 139 for four in 19.1 overs.
For Chennai, Ravichandran Ashwin was the most successful bowler with two wickets fro 13 form his four overs while Sadab Jakati and Raina took a wicket apiece.
Earlier, Suresh Raina's (52) half century was the lone bright spot in Chennai Super Kings' batting card as all-rounder Ryan Harris' three-wicket haul helped Deccan Chargers restrict them to 138 for eight.
Chennai were off to a flyer with opener Matthew Hayden and M Vijay putting on 41 runs in little over four overs.
However, Vijay's run out, after striking one four and a six in his 13-ball 23, slowed down Chennai's innings and Hayden's dismissal only added to their problems.
The left-hander struck three fours in his 18-ball 19 before being caught behind by former Australia teammate Adam Gilchrist off Harmeet Singh.
In walked Raina and began repairing the innings but he didn't get a steady partner at the other end as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's (7) poor form continued and Australian import Michael Hussey (8) to failed to make an impact.
Raina was dismissed by Harris after making 42-ball 52 that included four boundaries and a couple of sixes.
To negate the regular fall of wickets, Chennai needed to score briskly but they failed to do so as all of Deccan's strike bowlers returned decent figures.
Harris was the most impressive of the lot as his three wickets cost just 18 runs.
RP Singh, Harmeet, Andrew Symonds and Pragyan Ojha were also among the wickets, picking one each.
Sangakkara shines, Kings XI Punjab humble Mumbai
Mohali: Kumar Sangakkara led from the front as tournament laggards Kings XI Punjab showed rare form to humble table-toppers Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an Indian Premier League match here tonight.
For them, Piyush Chawla (3/24) silenced the Mumbai top guns, including Sachin Tendulkar, while Irfan Pathan (3/29) dented the middle order to restrict the visitors to a modest 154 for nine. Five of the visiting batsmen were bowled, most in an IPL match.
For Mumbai, JP Duminy (35), Ambati Rayudu (33) and Tendulkar (29) chipped in with useful cameos but the Kings XI bowlers never really allowed them to go ballistic.
And the Punjab side showed the same alacrity with the bat.
Mahela Jayawardene (31 of 18 balls) gave them a flying start and Adrian Barath (33) provided the solidity while skipper Kumar Sangakkara (56 of 42 balls) stayed put till the penultimate over as the home side cruised to 158 for four in 19.2 overs.
Yuvraj Singh's struggle to wriggle out of a prolonged bad patch, however, continued with the left-hander getting out at a time when victory looked far from a certainty.
It was Jayawardene's brisk knock which set the tone for Punjab's chase.
Jayawardene opened his account with back-to-back fours off Ryan McLaren, a treatment he meted out to Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga before Malinga removed the right-hander.
Barath and Sangakkara, however, kept going. Barath hit Harbhajan Singh over long on ropes for a six before Duminy trapped him leg before and Yuvraj too left when his team needed him most.
Sangakkara, however, batted with characteristic nonchalance, helping himself to the occasional boundaries that kept coming.
Sangakkara hit Duminy over his head for a six and then hit Zaheer for a boundary to complete his half-century before Malinga removed him in the 19th over.
The match was heading for a close finish but Irfan Pathan (15 not out) maintained his calm to complete the formality with four balls to spare.
Not far from being the World No.1: Saina Nehwal
NEW DELHI: India's badminton star Saina Nehwal said her decision to play in select international tournaments has worked wonders for her and the day is not far when she will be the World number one.
Saina, currently ranked sixth, said she was now participating in limited tournaments and is more focussed on winning titles.
The 20-year-old is the top seed in Badminton Asia Championships beginning here Monday and is supremely confident.
"I am playing in selected tournaments now and it has worked well for me. It is giving me adequate time to train and also spend quality time with my family. So when I go back to courts, I am fresh, focussed and well prepared to face the top players and the aim is to win every tournament," Saina told reporters on Saturday.
"This year the focus is to do well in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. If I continue like this, I can be soon be the number one, hopefully."
Saina, who will play Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in the opening round, said playing at home will be an advantage. But there will also be pressure on her to live upto the expectations.
"Even the world's top player is under pressure to win every match. I think pressure will always be there when you are a top seed. The draw is tough. As of now, I am focussing only on the first match. I have trained really hard and I am quite confident of performing well.
"I am in good shape, probably the best in my career so far. The last four-five months have been good for me. I reached the semi-finals of All England Championship. My game has also improved a lot.
"It will be a tough competition. Players like Zhou Mi and Pui Yin Yip from Hong Kong will be strong contenders."
Saina also said that the Indian team was high on confidence ahead of the tournament.
"The Indian players have had some good results recently and they will hopefully do well here. Jwala Gutta and V. Diju have got the top billing in mixed doubles and they have a relatively easier draw, so I think they have a good chance of going up in the tournament."
Saina, however, said the media should give more coverage to badminton.
"We are doing so well as a team and this is the right time for the sport to get attention and grow in the country. If the young players do not get sponsorship now, it will be difficult for them to go to the next level."
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