Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.
Poland mourns president, elite killed in crash [Reuters]
- Poles were in deep mourning on Sunday after President Lech Kaczynski and many of the country’s ruling elite were killed in a plane crash. The aging Tupolev plane crashed in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia on Saturday, killing all 97 people on board. Kaczynski had been planning to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet forces in a nearby forest. The chief of Poland’s armed forces, the head of its navy, its central bank governor, opposition lawmakers and Kaczynski’s wife Maria were among those killed in the crash.
- Despite Poles’ deep sense of loss, analysts said the crash should not pose any serious threat to the political and economic stability of Poland, a staunch NATO ally of the United States and a member of the European Union. The pilot of Kaczynski’s plane ignored several orders not to land from air traffic control, the deputy chief of the Russian Air Force’s general staff was quoted as saying
- Kaczynski, a combative nationalist often at odds with Tusk’s centrist government and the EU, was a staunch critic of Putin’s Russia. Putin had invited Tusk, not Kaczynski, to ceremonies last Wednesday marking the Katyn massacre anniversary. Poles noted the irony of a crash that claimed the lives of so many members of Poland’s elite near the spot where Josef Stalin’s NKVD secret police shot dead some 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940, wiping out much of the country’s wartime leadership
Twitter chases first revenue with ad service [Reuters]
- Microblogging service Twitter introduced a new advertising program on Tuesday, in a first step to prove that its popularity among web users can translate into a self-sustaining business. Known as “Promoted Tweets,” the ad program represents a much-anticipated move to address concerns about the revenue generating potential at Twitter and marks a key milestone on the road to an initial public offering, analysts said
- The company struck deals to provide its stream of Tweets to Google Inc and Microsoft Corp for inclusion in their Web search results last year, but Tuesday’s ad service represents the first fruits of an effort to build a business model around a recurring revenue stream
- Twitter said that it was currently testing Promoted Tweets with a handful of advertisers including Starbucks Corp, Best Buy Co, Sony Corp’s Sony Pictures and Virgin America. Under the program, a Twitter message, such as a promotional offer by Starbucks, will appear at the top of search results on Twitter for keywords that companies specifically purchase from Twitter
Thailand PM Abhisit Vejjajiva under rising pressure [BBC]
- Pressure is mounting on Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, days after 21 people died in clashes between troops and anti-government protesters. The army chief says parliament should be dissolved, and election officials have recommended Mr Abhisit’s party be disbanded over illegal donations
- Saturday’s clashes were the deadliest political violence since 1992. Seventeen civilians died in the unrest – including a Japanese cameraman working for Reuters news agency. At least four soldiers were also killed and 800 other people were injured. Red-shirted protesters have been camped out at various sites in Bangkok for a month
- Speaking to journalists, army head Gen Anupong Paojinda said he was reluctant to use force to end the stand-off. The army plays a prominent role in Thai politics – former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by the military in 2006. Shortly after Gen Anupong had spoken, the Election Commission recommended that Mr Abhisit’s Democrat Party should be dissolved
Sinopec to pay $4.65 billion in oil sands deal [Reuters]
- China’s state-owned Sinopec plans to buy ConocoPhillips’ stake in the huge Syncrude project in Canada’s oil sands for $4.65 billion, marking one of the Asian country’s largest investments ever in North America. ConocoPhillips, the U.S.-based oil major, said on Monday it will sell its 9.03%t interest in the Syncrude Canada Ltd project to China’s top refiner in a deal set to close in the third quarter
- It underlines a resurgence in interest in the vast but difficult-to-extract energy resource located in the province of Alberta. Investment in the oil sands has jumped since crude prices shot past $80 a barrel with the global economic recovery gaining traction. China has spent billions of dollars acquiring energy and mining assets around the world to help feed its fast-growing economy
- The oil sands make up the largest crude deposit outside the Middle East, a resource attracting a Who’s Who of the global oil industry willing to pay extra in development costs in exchange for a secure supply in a politically stable country. Sinopec already has an oil sands stake. Last April, it bought an additional 10% interest in Total’s planned Northern Lights project for an undisclosed sum. Also in 2009, PetroChina acquired a majority stake in leases held by Athabasca Oil Sands Corp for $1.9 billion
Hungary’s Fidesz sees tax cuts, denounces austerity [Reuters]
- Hungary’s next prime minister set tax cuts and growth as priorities for his center-right Fidesz party on Monday after voters severely punished the ruling Socialists for deep cuts to curb the budget deficit. Viktor Orban, whose party won a majority in Sunday’s vote and could win two-thirds of the seats after the second round on April 25, denounced the austerity measures of the Socialists
- Fidesz will have to reconcile its growth plans with keeping Hungary on a disciplined budget track and reducing the country’s high public debt which stands at around 80% of GDP
- The party, which last ruled between 1998 and 2002, also faces great expectations from investors and the public to put Hungary on the path to sustainable growth after near financial collapse and introduce the euro sometime down the road
Fugitive Kyrgyz President Warns of Bloodshed [New York Times]
- The provisional government that took power in Kyrgyzstan last week has drawn up plans to detain the country’s ousted president, a leader once close to the United States who fled a bloody riot in the capital to his ancestral homeland in the south of the country
- The president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, re-emerged in public from his compound in a southern village on Monday to hold a rally of about 500 people — and taunt the new leaders to try to arrest him. If they do, Mr. Bakiyev said, “there will be blood.”
- Mr. Bakiyev’s options are shrinking as more and more regional leaders voice support for the interim government or resign, as have some of the top officials in his own home region. Outside the capital, the American military resumed flying troops to and from Afghanistan through the Manas air base on Monday, after a brief halt because of the uprising
Russia and US to dispose of tonnes of surplus plutonium [BBC]
- Russia and the US have agreed to dispose of tonnes of surplus weapons-grade plutonium under a deal signed at a nuclear summit in Washington. The deal calls for each side to dispose of 34 tonnes of the material. Moscow is to spend $2.5bn on the program with the US contributing $400m to the Russian disposal
- Earlier, Mexico pledged to eliminate all its highly-enriched uranium. The country will work with the US, Canada and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to convert the uranium at its research reactor into lower-grade fuel. Ukraine said on Monday that it would ship its high-enriched uranium to protected storage sites abroad – possibly in Russia or the US
- In a defiant move, Iran has announced that it will hold its own nuclear summit in Tehran this weekend with the foreign ministers of 15 countries. It is estimated there are about 1,600 tonnes of highly enriched uranium in the world – the type used in nuclear weapons. Experts agree that virtually all of it is held by the acknowledged nuclear-weapons states, most of it in Russia. Last week, the US and Russia signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, reducing each country’s deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons
- Spain seizes fake Dakar rally lorry loaded with cocaine [BBC]
- China ship ‘seriously damaged’ Great Barrier Reef [BBC]
- In India, Wal-Mart Goes to the Farm [New York Times]
- Somali Radio Stations Halt Music [New York Times]
- MasterCard names ex-Citi exec Banga as CEO [Reuters]
- China quake kills 400, thousands injured [Reuters]
Photograph by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Mourners arrive to light candles under a giant cross at Pilsudski Square in Warsaw, Poland, in memory of late Polish President Lech Kaczynski on April 11, 2010. Kaczynski, his wife Maria and leading members of the Polish military and government were killed when the presidential plane they were traveling in crashed while attempting to land at Smolensk, Russia on April 10th. The delegation was on its way to attend memorial services for the thousands of Polish military officers murdered by the Soviets during World War II at Katyn. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
via The Big Picture: Poland in Mourning
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