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"NOVOSTI" about Katyn 2010

List of all news, comments and multimedia materials about crash in Smolensk as published by NOVOSTI:

http://en.rian.ru/trend/kaczynski_crush/

Poland uncertain whether to reveal Tu-154 black box records

Polish investigators have not yet decided on whether to make public data from flight recorders of the Tu-154 plane, which crashed on April 10 in western Russia, killing Poland's first couple and other top officials.

Poland's chief prosecutor Andrzej Seremet said Polish prosecutors will postpone revealing the black box contents until they obtain other necessary information from Russia. The final decision on whether to disclose flight details is expected in two weeks.

"As soon as they [flight recorders] are analyzed in Poland, we would probably decide to make their content public," he said.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20100423/158707604.html

All victims in Polish plane crash identified

Poland's government says forensic experts have identified the last 21 bodies among the victims killed in the plane crash that claimed the life of President Lech Kaczynski.

Government Minister Michal Boni said Thursday that DNA tests in Moscow had helped in identifying 16 of the passengers and five crew members. The bodies are to be flown to Poland on Friday.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5HRIwocn5cLZn75suY8xsI5-1bgD9F81IK00

Polish 2009 Budget Deficit Widens, 2009 GDP Growth Revised Up

Poland’s general government deficit widened to 7.1 percent of gross domestic product last year, narrower than the government’s estimate of 7.2 percent, the Central Statistical Office said.

The budget shortfall totaled 95.7 billion zloty ($33 billion) last year, up from 46.9 billion zloty in 2008, as GDP growth slowed to 1.8 percent, revised from a preliminary 1.7 percent, the statistical office said. In 2009, the general government deficit was 3.9 percent of GDP, while the economy expanded 5 percent. European Union rules require member countries to keep their deficit ratios at or below 3 percent.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-22/polish-2009-budget-deficit-widens-2009-gdp-growth-revised-up.html

Russian Court Ordered to Hear Appeal in Katyn Case

Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the Moscow City Court to consider an appeal in which a rights group, Memorial, sought to force the authorities to declassify a 2004 decision by military prosecutors to drop an investigation into the massacre in the Katyn forest. A Memorial leader, Yan Rachinsky, said the ruling could lead to a court decision to open up secret documents providing details about the killings of thousands of Polish officers there. Poland also wants the documents declassified.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/world/europe/22katyn.html

Polish investigators challenge Russian claim that pilot error caused crash that killed president

Polish investigators have challenged the Russian claim that pilot error led to the air crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski - and are refusing to rule out terrorism.

The revelation comes amid conflicting reports over whether 'screams' were heard from the passenger compartment shortly before the Tupolev-154 crashed, killing all 96 people on board.

Investigators admit that a prayer is heard on the black box tapes in the final moments before the plane crashed on April 10, and acknowledge that the pilots knew the presidential jet was doomed as it approached a military airport in dense fog near Smolensk.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1267811/Polish-investigators-challenge-Russian-claim-pilot-error-caused-crash-killed-president.html#ixzz0lmrjGldR

3 Auschwitz thieves are no-shows at Polish prison

A Polish judge says three men found guilty last month in the theft of the notorious Auschwitz sign failed to show up to the prison to start their sentences.

Rafal Lisak, a judge at a Krakow court that convicted the men, says they were due to show up at a prison in Wloclawek on Tuesday but didn't appear.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ii_ZLAJ4rZ0EsaYbE_Iotl7aPiVQD9F7GP700

What now for Poland?

A plane carrying Poland's president and dozens of Polish political, military and religious leaders crashed in western Russia on Saturday, killing all 96 on board. Are you in Poland? What is your reaction to this news? How might this impact the Polish political landscape? Send us your views.
Follow this discussion: http://english.aljazeera.net/your_views/europe/2010410103743106654.html

June presidential poll for Poland

Poland will hold a presidential poll on June 20 to elect a successor to Lech Kaczynski who died in a plane crash in Russia earlier this month.

Bronislaw Komorowski, the country's parliamentary speaker and acting president, announced the widely-expected poll date on Wednesday.

A number of opinion polls released this week have given Komorowski - a member of the prime minister's Civic Platform party - a wide lead over other candidates in the election.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/2010421151735482570.html

Citigroup to Expand Polish Investment Bank Business

Citigroup Inc. says it will expand its Warsaw-based investment-banking operations in Poland to take advantage of planned government asset sales.

The U.S. bank joins Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in vying for advisory work for the government, which is preparing to sell stakes this year in its energy, insurance, chemical and phone companies to raise $10 billion to finance the widening budget deficit.

Poland’s government is urging banks to set up shop in Warsaw if they want business from the state. Citigroup, which is based in New York, bought a majority stake in Bank Handlowy SA, Poland’s biggest corporate bank, in 2001. Citigroup has about 5,800 employees in Poland.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-21/citigroup-to-expand-polish-investment-bank-business-update1-.html

Polish Borrowing Costs Drop to 3-Year Low as Bond Demand Surges

Poland’s borrowing costs fell to the lowest in three years in a sale of five-year bonds as economic recovery and slowing inflation bolstered demand to the highest since the month Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.

The Finance Ministry sold 3 billion zloty ($1.04 billion) of bonds due in April 2015 at an average yield of 4.987 percent, the lowest since March 2007, down from 5.778 percent at the previous auction on Dec. 2. Investors bid for 6.62 billion zloty of bonds, the biggest demand for similar-maturity debt since September 2008, when Lehman’s bankruptcy led to a deepening of the global financial crisis, according to the ministry Web site.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-21/polish-borrowing-costs-drop-to-3-year-low-as-bond-demand-surges.html

Poland's airspace reopens but will take days for normal traffic to resume

Polish aviation authorities say the country's airspace has been reopened and many flights are resuming.

Jaroslaw Niewinski, the deputy director for Poland's state body that oversees air navigation, warned on Wednesday that it will still take several days for air traffic to return to normal.

Read more: http://www.todayonline.com/BreakingNews/EDC100421-0000216/Polands-airspace-reopens-but-will-take-days-for-normal-traffic-to-resume

Reaction to tragedy showcases changes in Polish-Jewish relations

The Jewish reaction to the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other senior Polish officials in an air tragedy highlights a remarkable change in how the Jewish world views Poland.

The prayers, public statements and personal tributes, including a special remembrance during the March of the Living, were normal expressions of grief and solidarity for a close friend and ally -- in short, heartfelt sentiments that probably could not have been made 20 or even 15 years ago.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/04/20/1011664/reaction-to-tragedy-showcases-changes-in-polish-jewish-relations

Polish Investigators Have 4 Versions of Plane Explosion

The polish investigators consider four versions of plane explosion, the Russian press says.
According to Prosecutor General Anjey Semereti, there were four versions of air catastrophe – terrorist act, technical crash, pilot’s mistake and coincidence of the last two.
‘None of them has been ruled out yet’, the Prosecutor said.

Read more: http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=21308

Poland gives aid to kin of plane crash victims

Poland's government has started providing financial help to families of the victims of the April 10 plane crash that killed the president and first lady, an official said Tuesday.

Eighty-seven families have so far gotten 40,000 zlotys ($13,800) each, and the government intends to provide additional help to families with children and widowed spouses without jobs, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak said.

Also Tuesday, prosecutors investigating the crash said it could take several months to determine the exact cause.

Poles are eager to understand exactly what caused the worst tragedy to strike the country since World War II. Officials have so far pointed to human error but Col. Zbigniew Drozdowski, one of the military investigators, told a news conference in Warsaw that all theories are still being considered.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5HRIwocn5cLZn75suY8xsI5-1bgD9F6RC9O2

Barack Obama insults Poland – again

Last week I wrote a piece urging President Obama to attend the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the Polish First Lady, and 94 senior officials who perished in the Smolensk air disaster. I noted at the time:

The Obama administration has on numerous occasions failed to acknowledge the importance of Washington’s allies, and has often appeared indifferent, even hostile towards America’s closest friends. It is important at this time of tremendous pain and suffering in Poland, that the President of the United States sends a clear message that the American government and people are with them in heart and spirit.

The White House did subsequently announce that the president would attend the funeral ceremony in Krakow this past weekend, but like many world leaders he was unable to do so due to the grounding of flights over much of Europe.

One would have thought that President Obama might have used the time he would have spent in Poland paying his respects to the Polish fallen. For example he could have visited the recently erected Victims of Communism memorial in Washington, or at the very least have signed the condolence book at the Polish Embassy. But what did he choose to do instead? Play yet another round of golf.

Read more: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100035224/barack-obama-insults-the-poles-–-again/

Tomasz Adamek dedicates heavyweight fight to native Poland

Former world light-heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek has dedicated his Saturday night heavyweight bout against Riverside's Cris Arreola in Ontario to the late president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, and all countrymen affected by the tragic plane crash that killed the president and 95 others earlier this month.

"Before this tragedy, I was invited to a breakfast with the president after this fight," Adamek said Monday at San Manuel Indian Casino in Highland, as he promoted his bout against Arreola, which will be fought at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. "He loved fighting.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/04/tomasz-adamek-cris-arreola-boxing.html

Polish plane crash probe starts

Technical experts have begun examining the debris of Poland's presidential plane to determine what caused its deadly crash.

Ninety-six people, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and many top state and military leaders, died when the plane went down in dense fog in Smolensk, Russia, on April 10.

Russian and Polish forensic experts working in Moscow still need to identify 20 of the victims, including the members of the cabin crew, using DNA tests, said military prosecutor spokesman Col. Zbigniew Rzepa.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/19/poland-crash-investigation.html#ixzz0ldUrkCFs

Pole wins key award for protecting forest valley

A Polish conservationist won a key environment prize Monday for leading a campaign that halted a giant expressway that would have sliced through one of Europe's last swaths of undisturbed wilderness.

Malgorzata Gorska, 37, an activist with the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds, was one of six winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, a $150,000 (euro110,000) cash award informally dubbed the "Green Nobel."

She was recognized for her leadership in harnessing European Union regulations to stop the planned expressway from cutting through the Rospuda Valley, wetlands set amid a virgin pine forest that is home to endangered bird species, orchids, eagles, lynxes, wolves, elk, wild boars, otters and beavers.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9038165

Poland heads to fierce election campaign

Poland is facing a fierce election campaign to find a successor to the late President Lech Kaczynski.

While many Poles are still in shock over the crash of the presidential airplane in Russia, politicians are gearing up for the vote that decides the succession of Kaczynski.

"The campaign will start in the coming weeks and I expect fierce verbal sparring," Anna Quirin, a Poland expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin think tank, said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/04/19/Poland-heads-to-fierce-election-campaign/UPI-20011271706101/

EU Leaves Polish CO2 Cap Intact, Ends Legal Wrangle

The European Union approved Poland’s proposal to leave its carbon-dioxide emissions cap unchanged, putting an end to a legal wrangle that threatened the world’s biggest carbon market.

Poland asked for an annual limit of 208.5 million tons in a revised proposal. The country, which successfully challenged the commission’s authority to review national plans for allocating carbon allowances in an EU court last year, dropped demands earlier this month for a higher cap after the recession reduced industrial discharges.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-19/eu-leaves-polish-co2-cap-intact-ends-legal-wrangle-update2-.html

Experts look for answers in Polish plane crash

Technical experts were examining the debris of Poland's presidential plane on Monday in search of clues for why it crashed earlier this month killing 96 people, including the country's president.

Military prosecutor spokesman Col. Zbigniew Rzepa said that Russian and Polish forensic experts working in Moscow still need to identify 20 of the victims, including the members of the cabin crew, using DNA tests.

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100419/poland_plane_100419/20100419?hub=World

Polish bishop dies in car crash after president's funeral

The deputy head of Poland’s Protestant Church was killed in a car accident while returning home from state funeral ceremonies for President Lech Kaczynski, the church said Monday.

Read more: http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/04/19/13635826.html

European airports and airspace closed by ash cloud

POLAND - Four Polish airports including Warsaw and Krakow have reopened.

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100419/twl-uk-europe-air-airports-factbox-bd5ae06.html

Elaborate State Funeral Held for Poland's First Couple

An elaborate state funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, was held Sunday bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralyzed by the plume of volcanic ash that blanketed Europe.

An elaborate state funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, was held Sunday bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralyzed by the plume of volcanic ash that blanketed Europe.

The couple's bodies were flown from Warsaw to Krakow early Sunday for the tradition-laden ceremony and burial in the nearby Wawel Cathedral, the final resting place for Poland's kings, poets and statesmen, including Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, the exiled World War II leader who died in a mysterious plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943.

President Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among the leaders who canceled at the last minute because of the expanding volcanic ash cloud, dangerous to airplane engines, that has enveloped Europe and closed nearly all of the continent's airports since late Thursday.

"All the French people will be, in their thoughts, with the Polish people" on Sunday, Sarkozy said in a letter sent to acting President Bronislaw Komorowski expressing his regret for being unable to attend.

The volcanic ash from Iceland did not deter everyone. The leaders of Baltic and Balkan states, came by car for the stately event.

Polish police estimated the number of mourners in and around Krakow at nearly 150,000.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew by plane from Moscow for the funeral. His presence was a further sign of the warming ties between the two countries, which had been strained for centuries, most recently because of communism and the 1940 Katyn massacre.

Read more:  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/18/bodies-polish-leader-wife-flown-krakow-burial/

UK's foreign secretary, Prince Charles cancel journey to Poland for president's funeral

Britain's Prince Charles and Foreign Secretary David Miliband have cancelled their trip to Poland for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski because of flight disruptions caused by volcanic ash plumes drifting from Iceland.

The pair had been due to join world leaders for Sunday's ceremony, to be held in the southern Polish city of Krakow.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jEt0xS38ijrKJ75kAfJF0_NGUEkg