Russia ethnic violence: Hundreds rounded up, arms seized

Russian police detained hundreds of people in Moscow and St.Petersburg on Wednesday, aiming to prevent new outbreaks of ethnic violence that erupted in the capital last weekend.

Law enforcement authorities turned out in force near the central Kievsky railway station in Moscow, where nationalist ethnic Russian youths and migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia had been gathering for a rumoured confrontation. About 800 people were detained during the day-long operation, many of whom were armed with knives, clubs or stun guns, Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said, according to Russian news agencies.

In St.Petersburg Russian police detained more then eighty people near one of the central metro stations. The police said they had managed to take control of the situation and no violence or serious injuries were reported in the city. Simmering tension between ethnic-Russian nationalists and minorities from the largely Muslim Caucasus and Central Asia escalated after the fatal shooting of a soccer fan last week in a Moscow street fight between members of the two groups.

Thousands of soccer fans and nationalists rioted in Moscow central square outside the Kremlin on Saturday (December 11) and attacked passersby who appeared not to be Slavs — violence President Dmitry Medvedev denounced as pogroms.Medvedev vowed on Monday to ensure those responsible for the violence were punished, in a warning that suggested the Kremlin is worried ethnic violence could intensify and spread.European Russia, and particularly Moscow, is home to a volatile mix of disenchanted ethnic-Russian youth and migrants from the Caucasus, part of which is in Russia, and impoverished ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Aisam, Rohan crash out of Kremlin Cup

Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna were defeated 6-4, 7-5 in the ATP Kremlin Cup quarter-finals on Friday.
The Indo-Pak Express lost to Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki from Serbia.
Earlier, Qureshi and Bopanna had defeated Czeck Leos Freidl and Victor Hanescu from Romania 6-1, 3-6, 10-8 in the first round.

Kremlin Cup: Aisam-Bopanna duo to play quarterfinals

The tennis duo comprising Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Rohan Bopanna of India have been cruised to the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup ATP World Championship in Moscow.
The ‘Indo-Pak Express’ made it to the quarters after defeating the strong pair of Czech Republic player L. Fridle- a former top 10 doubles player- and V. Hanescu of Romania, The News reported. Aisam-Bopanna completely dominated the first set grabbing it with a score of 6-1, but the tables were turned in the second set when they found themselves down with 1-5 at one point in time. However, they were able to hit back with a few classy returns to make it 3-5, although they lost the set 6-3. In the super tie-break, the Asian team won 10-8 to secure their passage to the last-eight.

Ahmadinejad warns against new U.N. sanctions

NEW YORK: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned here on Tuesday that adoption of fresh sanctions by the UN Security Council against his country would doom an improvement in US-Iranian ties.

He told a press conference on the sidelines of a nuclear conference that if the UN Security Council were to adopt a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance, “the relationship between Iran and the United States will never improve again.”

“The path to that (improved ties) will be shut,” he added, a day after he accused the United States and other declared nuclear-armed governments of using nuclear threats against countries which do not have the bomb.

Ahmadinejad also told reporters on Tuesday that he was concerned that the opportunity presented by Barack Obama”s accession to the White House with the goal of reforming America”s international image “would be lost.”

“It will be a reversal to the Bush era,” he added, referring to Obama”s predecessor, president George W Bush.

Addressing the conference reviewing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty on Monday, Ahmadinejad roundly condemned the United States as a proliferator and manipulator of the NPT to its own ends.

“Regrettably, the government of the United States has not only used nuclear weapons but also continues to threaten to use such weapons against other countries, including Iran,” he added.

In a sharp response Monday, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton dismissed the Iranian leader”s charges as “wild accusations” and labeled Iran as an “outlier” country, which like North Korea demonstrates “a determination to violate the rules and defy the international community.”

“Iran will not succeed in its efforts to divert and divide,” she added.

Iran is under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions to get it to stop enriching uranium, which can be used to make the bomb, even though it insists its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity.

Honduras sets up disputed coup truth commission

TEGUCIGALPA: Honduras has set up a Truth and Reconciliation commission aimed at drawing a line under last year”s coup, as Latin America remained deeply divided in its aftermath.

Washington welcomed the move as Honduras returned to the international arena after many Latin American nations vowed to boycott a joint summit with the European Union to protest the inclusion of Porfirio Lobo, whom they deem the illegitimate president of Honduras.

Honduran rights groups slammed the reconciliation commission for failing to include abuses committed around the June 28 coup that overthrew president Manuel Zelaya.

The commission was part of an agreement to end the political impasse between Zelaya — now in exile in the Dominican Republic — and interim leaders who backed his military ouster.

It was also an electoral promise from Lobo, who took office in January after controversial elections and is still seeking to return investment to the impoverished nation.

The commission includes Guatemalan former vice president Eduardo Stein, Canadian diplomat Michael Kergin, and Julieta Castellanos, the head of the National Autonomous University of Honduras.

It will deliver a report in six to eight months, Lobo said.

Riot police with shields pushed away protesters gathered outside the commission swearing-in ceremony to protest against Castellanos, who is in a labor dispute with university workers.

Meanwhile at a summit in Argentina, Ecuador”s President Rafael Correa said that many in the region, including Brazil, would boycott an EU-Latin America summit this month in Madrid to protest the inclusion of Lobo.

Only two South American governments — Colombia and Peru — recognize Lobo, although Honduras has restored ties with Washington, as well as with some Central American nations and Europe.

The top US diplomat to Latin America, Arturo Valenzuela, said in El Salvador on Tuesday that Lobo”s government had now taken the “necessary steps” to return to the international community.

“Honduras is a brother country which has gone through serious enough difficulties and at the same time needs to normalize its relations with the international community,” Valenzuela told a news conference in San Salvador.

But one international NGO said that the commission had been “born dead.”

Its mandate ignores the victims of rights abuses and fails to force authorities to cooperate, Alejandra Nuno, a regional director of the Center for International Justice and Law (CEJIL), told a news conference in Costa Rica.

Honduran activist Bertha Oliva told the conference by telephone that rights groups were setting up an alternative truth commission in Honduras.

Moscow relishes parade rehearsal

MOSCOW: A rehearsal for the May 9 Victory Day parade started in Moscow on Tuesday booming with the powerful roar of military aircraft engines.

“Rehearsals have started. The Air Force parade formation flights have been scheduled between May 4 and 6 over Red Square as part of planned trainings,” Russian Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.

Russia will mark the 65th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany with its biggest ever post-Soviet demonstration of military hardware.

The Russian Air Force spokesman said this year some 20 aviation groups or more than 125 military planes and helicopters will participate in the parade.

The aircraft will include the Russian military transport planes Il -76, Il- 78 and An-124, accompanied by multi-purpose Su-27 fighters, aircraft aviation special-purpose IL-80s and A-50s, Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers and supersonic Tu-160 Blackjacks.

Visitors will also see Tu-22M3 Backfire long-range bombers, Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes, MiG-29 Fulcrum and MiG-31 Foxhound fighter jets.

Russia”s new generation advanced military aircraft trainers Yak-130, Su-34 multipurpose strike aircraft and Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter will also fly over the Kremlin for the first time, Drik said.

Poland to hold early presidential election: spokesman

WARSAW: Poland will hold an early presidential election after the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in Russia on Saturday, the government spokesman said.

“In line with the constitution, we will have to hold an early presidential poll,” Pawel Gras said. “For now, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, is automatically … the acting president.”

Constitutionalists say the election date must be announced within two weeks and the election must take place within two months of the announcement.

Polish leader, 95 others dead in Russia jet crash

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 96, officials said.

Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the Soviet-era Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.

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.

Russia”s Emergency Ministry said there were 96 dead, 88 part of a 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.

“We still cannot fully understand the scope of this tragedy and what it means for us in the future. Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland,” Paszkowski said. “We can assume with great certainty that all persons on board have been killed.”

The governor of the Smolensk region, where the crash took place about 11 a.m. (0700 GMT), also said no one survived.

State news channel Rossiya-24 showed footage from the crash site, with pieces of the plane scattered widely amid leafless trees and small fires burning in woods shrouded with fog. A tail fin with the red and white national colors of Poland stuck up from the debris.

“The Polish presidential plane did not make it to the runway while landing. Tentative findings indicate that it hit the treetops and fell apart,” regional governor Sergei Anufriev said on Rossiya-24. “Nobody has survived the disaster.”

The presidential Tu-154 was at least 20 years old. Polish officials have long discussed replacing the planes that carry the country”s leaders but said they lacked the funds. According to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 66 crashes involving Tu-154s, including six in the past five years. The Russian carrier Aeroflot recently withdrew its Tu-154 fleet from service.

The presidential plane was fully overhauled in December in Russia, the general director of the Aviakor plant in Samara told Rossiya-24. The plant repaired the plane”s three engines, retrofitted electronic and navigation equipment and updated the interior, Alexei Gusev said. He said there could be no doubts that the plane was flightworthy.

Polish-Russian relations had been improving of late after being poisoned for decades over the Katyn massacre.

Russia never has formally apologized for the murders of some 22,000 Polish officers, but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin”s decision to attend a memorial ceremony earlier this week in the forest near Katyn was seen as a gesture of goodwill toward reconciliation. Rossiya-24 showed hundreds of people around the Katyn monument, many holding Polish flags, some weeping.

President Dmitry Medvedev sent his condolences and promised to work closely with Poland in investigating the crash.

“Russia shares the grief and mourning of Poland,” Medvedev said in a statement posted on the Kremlin Web site. “Please accept the most sincere condolences to the Polish people, words of compassion and support to relatives and friends of those who perished.”

Putin has been put in charge of a commission investigating the crash, the Kremlin said.

In Warsaw, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an extraordinary meeting of his Cabinet and the national flag was lowered to half-staff at the presidential palace, where people gathered to lay flowers and light candles.

Black ribbons appeared in some windows in the Polish capital.

Poland”s president is commander in chief of its armed forces but the position”s domestic duties are chiefly symbolic. Kaczynski, 60, became president in December 2005 after defeating Tusk in that year”s presidential vote.

The nationalist conservative was the twin brother of Poland”s opposition leader, former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Kaczynski”s wife, Maria, was an economist. They had a daughter, Marta, and two granddaughters.

Kaczynski had said he would seek a second term in presidential elections this fall. He was expected to face an uphill struggle against Parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Tusk”s governing Civic Platform party.

According to the constitution, Komorowski would take over presidential duties.

Klaus Bachmann, a professor of politics at Wroclaw University, said the president “wasn”t very popular and it was quite obvious that he would lose the upcoming elections.”

“The open question is what will Kaczynski”s party and his brother do; he might decide to run for president himself, he might also consider to withdraw from politics at all because he had a very very close link to his brother and I can”t imagine how much shocked he must be.”

Poland, a nation of 38 million people, is by far the largest of the 10 formerly communist countries that have joined the European Union in recent years.

Last year, Poland was the only EU nation to avoid recession and posted economic growth of 1.7 percent.

It has become a firm US ally in the region since the fall of communism – a stance that crosses party lines.

The country sent troops to the US-led war in Iraq and recently boosted its contingent in Afghanistan to some 2,600 soldiers.

US Patriot missiles are expected to be deployed in Poland this year. That was a Polish condition for a 2008 deal – backed by both Kaczynski and Tusk – to host long-range missile defense interceptors.

The deal, which was struck by the Bush administration, angered Russia and was later reconfigured under President Barack Obama”s administration.

Under the Obama plan, Poland would host a different type of missile defense interceptors as part of a more mobile system and at a later date, probably not until 2018.

Kaczynski is the first serving Polish leader to die since exiled World War II-era leader Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski in a plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943.

Putin, Medvedev send condolences, vow ”detailed” crash probe

MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev offered condolences to Polish leaders and vowed a thorough probe into the crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday, news agencies reported.

Putin voiced sympathy over the “tragic” crash in a phone call with his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, said the spokesman for the Russian prime minister, Dmitry Peskov.

“Vladimir Putin called Prime Minister Donald Tusk and expressed condolences over the tragic plane crash near Smolensk to him and to the entire Polish people,” Peskov told Russian news agencies.

“I have given an order to carry out a detailed investigation of the accident with complete and close cooperation with the Polish side,” Medvedev said in a message to Bronislaw Komorowski, the Marshal of the Sejm — head of the Polish parliament — who is set to take over Kascynski”s duties.

“Russia shares Poland”s grief and mourning. I ask you to offer my sincerest condolences to the Polish people, words of sympathy and support for the relatives and loved ones of the dead,” said the message, posted on the Kremlin website.

A total of 96 people were on board the plane that crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk, all of whom are believed to be dead.

Separately, the foreign ministry said in a statement that Russia was ready to expedite visas for Polish investigators to travel to the crash and said Russian investigators were staying in close contact with Polish authorities.

Naomi Campbell to Appear on Russian New Year’s Show

MOSCOW : Naomi Campbell to Appear on Russian New Year’s Show, Supermodel Naomi Campbell has flirted with novel writing and pop singing, but in her unlikeliest career move yet, she will appear Thursday on Russian state television to wish viewers a Happy New Year.

The British model, who has a Russian boyfriend, will appear as a guest on a New Year’s light entertainment variety show on Channel One television.

The all-night show, a fixture of New Year’s Eve celebrations in Russia which last year attracted more than a third of viewers in the country, runs around a speech by President Dmitry Medvedev and the chimes of the Kremlin clocktower.

In the show’s trailer, Campbell stumbles over a simple question: Asked in Russian whether this is her first New Year’s in Russia, she answers in English, “No, this is, yes, no, sorry,” before bursting into laughter.

A spokeswoman for the channel, Svetlana Doronina, would not reveal whether Campbell will speak Russian on the show.

Campbell is shown in a silver sequinned dress, seated next to her boyfriend, Vladislav Doronin, a businessman involved in real estate.

Their relationship was first reported in summer 2008, when British newspapers published photographs of the couple canoodling on a yacht.

The other international guests will include French actor Alain Delon and Greek pop star Demis Roussos, both of whom are popular in Russia.

Campbell has made appearances at charity events in Russia but has generally kept a low profile while visiting the country.

She has previously attempted to move away from modelling by publishing a novel, “Black Swan,” in 1994 and releasing a pop album a year later, both of which were poorly received by critics.

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Naomi Campbell to Appear on Russian New Year’s Show was first posted on December 31, 2009 at 11:32 pm.

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