A plane carrying the Polish President and other top political and military aides crashed in Western Russia on Saturday. President Lech Kaczynski’s plane tried to land in a thick fog, missing the runway and snagging treetops about half a mile from the airport in Smolensk, scattering chunks of fuselage across a bare forest. The Polish leaders were gathering at Katyn Woods, the site of a 1940 massacre by Soviet officers. “It is a damned place,” former President Aleksander Kwasniewski told TVN24. “It sends shivers down my spine.” According to a Russian official, the air traffic controllers warned the plane not to land several times and tried to reroute them to another site, but the crew continued with the descent.
In Brussels, European leaders provided a rescue line to Greece, offering the country $40 billion in aid. The loans would come at a 5% interest rate, which was a little higher than Greece had hoped. The European plan makes the funds available to Athens if it asks for them. Greece has not yet made a formal request. If it does, the heads of government from the euro zone would have to sign off on the package. Germany had greatly opposed the plan but anxiety in the market forced European leaders to act. Greece intends to auction a package of treasury bills on Tuesday, and the response should signal whether Sunday’s action has reassured the markets.
President Obama met with leaders of India and Pakistan on Sunday, a day ahead of a two-day Washington gathering with 47 nations devoted to the question of how to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists. Obama has called this the “single greatest threat to U.S. security,” attention has been on the southeast Asian countries since satellite photos showed steam coming from a cooling tower in Pakistan. The country insists that it has no choice but to step up its nuclear production since India signed a nuclear deal with the U.S. during the Bush Administration. It is a very sensitive issue in Washington. In an interview last Monday, Mr. Obama avoided a question about his progress in building on a five-year, $100 million Bush administration program to safeguard Pakistan’s arms and materials.
In Brussels, European leaders provided a rescue line to Greece, offering the country $40 billion in aid. The loans would come at a 5% interest rate, which was a little higher than Greece had hoped. The European plan makes the funds available to Athens if it asks for them. Greece has not yet made a formal request. If it does, the heads of government from the euro zone would have to sign off on the package. Germany had greatly opposed the plan but anxiety in the market forced European leaders to act. Greece intends to auction a package of treasury bills on Tuesday, and the response should signal whether Sunday’s action has reassured the markets.
President Obama met with leaders of India and Pakistan on Sunday, a day ahead of a two-day Washington gathering with 47 nations devoted to the question of how to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists. Obama has called this the “single greatest threat to U.S. security,” attention has been on the southeast Asian countries since satellite photos showed steam coming from a cooling tower in Pakistan. The country insists that it has no choice but to step up its nuclear production since India signed a nuclear deal with the U.S. during the Bush Administration. It is a very sensitive issue in Washington. In an interview last Monday, Mr. Obama avoided a question about his progress in building on a five-year, $100 million Bush administration program to safeguard Pakistan’s arms and materials.
No comments:
Post a Comment