Translate

Search This Blog

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Analysis: Katyn touches another Polish generation


He died en route to the most sensitive mission possible — a visit to the place that has driven a wedge between Poles and Russians for three generations. The death of Lech Kaczynski, Poland's president and dozens of his high-level countrymen in a plane crash, and the purpose behind the journey, laid bare the deep divisions that remain between two nations still struggling to be more than uneasy neighbors who watch each other with skepticism and suspicion. Saturday's planned visit to the Katyn forest was somber in purpose but underscored his suspicious eye of the massive neighbor and former taskmaster to the east. The memorial service was to mark the 70th anniversary of the killing of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviet secret security during World War II. Katyn. The site of the massacre of Polish military officers, priests, shopkeepers. Men shot in the back of the head by Josef Stalin's NKVD, the precursor of the KGB. Russia and Poland have always kept a wary eye on each other. Poland, after communism's collapse, eagerly embraced the west, joining the European Union and NATO, partly to anchor itself in Europe and give itself a security blanket against Russia.

Deaths in Thailand street clashes


At least 10 people have been killed and more than 500 others wounded in violent clashes in the Thai capital between security forces and anti-government protesters.
The dead included four soldiers, protesters and a Reuters cameraman, officials said. The announcement came as the army launched an offensive to clear the so-called red shirt protesters from areas in Bangkok by nightfall on Saturday. The push set off hours of violent street fighting, with the military confronting protesters with rubber bullets, live rounds and tear gas and the red shirts fighting back with petrol bombs.

Kaczynski was good friend of Israel

President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi joined other world leaders and top ranking military officers in sending condolences to the government, people and army of Poland as well as to the families of the victims of the plane crash which took the lives of the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, along with the lives of senior military personnel and other dignitaries as well as relatives of Polish prisoners of war, mainly armed forces officers and members of the Polish intelligentsia, some of whom were Jews, who were killed in 1943 in the notorious massacre in the Katyn forest, 19 kilometers west of Smolensk in Russia.

Polish president dies in air crash


Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president, and several members of his government have died in a plane crash near Smolensk airport in western Russia. A total of 96 people - mostly Polish officials - were killed on Saturday when the president's Tupolev Tu-154 jet went down in heavy fog, Russia's emergency ministry said. The high-level Polish delegation was on its way to the city of Smolensk to take part in reconciliatory ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre where Russian forces killed more than 20,000 Poles.

Zardari enjoys absolute immunity, no cases can be re-opened, says Swiss AG


President Asif Ali Zardari. The Swiss Attorney General said it is a big problem because under the International Law which is also applicable to Switzerland, the Head of State, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister enjoy absolute immunity on reopening of cases. To a question by the interviewer about reopening of cases if submitted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Attorney General of Geneva said “ if an application to reopen the cases in Swiss courts was submitted through Pakistan’s Embassy it would be returned,” since the Head of the State enjoys absolute immunity according to International Law. Daniel Zappelli, the Attorney General of Geneva,said that he had received a three- page fax from Pakistan which he believed was an incomplete application. 

confirmed Aafia’s daughter


The eleven years old girl found outside Dr Fauzia’s house in Karachi, has been a confirmed as daughter of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani doctor currently behind the bars in the United States.  Interior Minister Rehman Malik during a joint press conference with Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui revealed that the DNA test of the girl proved that she is the daughter of Dr Aafia. “DNA test have proved that the minor girl found outside Dr Fauzia Siddqui’s house is Dr Aafia’s daughter”, Malik confirmed.