On April 10, a Tu-154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and a large number of the country’s top officials crashed in a wooded area near the Russian city of Smolensk
On April 10, a Tu-154 plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and a large number of the country’s top officials crashed in a wooded area near the Russian city of Smolensk. Pictured: rescuers working at the crash site.
The top-level delegation was flying to Russia to attend a ceremony commemorating the massacre of some 22,000 Polish POWs by Soviet secret police prior to World War II. All 97 people on board died as the plane hit the trees and crashed. Pictured: Lech Kaczynski with his wife Maria during a ceremony dedicated to the State of Lithuania’s 1,000th anniversary in Vilnius. July 6, 2009.
Poland declared a 7-day national mourning for the deceased. Pictured: candles near the Presidential Palace in Warsaw Old Town.
The Kyrgyz interim government announced on April 16 that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had offered his resignation by faxing a letter to the country’s new authorities from Kazakhstan. Bakiyev’s brother, Akhmad Bakiyev, said later in the day that the copy of the fax that had been shown to journalists was fake. Pictured: Bakiyev during an interview with press members in his home village of Teyip on the outskirts of Jalalabad in Kyrgyzstan’s south.
Nuclear Security Summit, hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on April 12-13, brought together 47 nations.
The participants in the top-level talks issued a joint communique following the summit and approved a plan intended to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons. The measures included the strengthening of international organizations responsible for nuclear security, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations, as well as the development of cooperation between the countries in the nuclear nonproliferation sphere. The participants stressed, however, that the nuclear security regime should not violate the countries’ right for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Pictured: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama before a working dinner hosted by Obama in Washington.
The U.S. adoptive mother of a Russian 7-year-old child, who sent him back to Russia in a highly controversial act that has caused uproar worldwide, may face legal prosecution. The boy, Artyom, adopted in September and renamed Justin, flew in to Moscow on April 8 alone after being accompanied to the plane in the United States by his adoptive grandmother. He brought a note in which his adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, said she will not take care of him any longer because he is "mentally unstable."
Visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Argentina on April 15 resulted in the signing of more than 10 agreements concerning various spheres in bilateral relations, including energy, transportation and space. Pictured: Medvedev and Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during talks in Buenos Aires.
