Divided Poland marks anniversary of Russia crash

AFP – People waves flags in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw April 10, 2011, to commemorate the first …

by Stanislaw Waszak Stanislaw Waszak – 1 hr 52 mins ago

WARSAW (AFP) – Poland on Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of a plane crash in Russia that killed president Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other high-profile Poles, amid bitter domestic divisions and a row with Moscow.

At a ceremony in central Warsaw, the late president's identical twin and current conservative opposition leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, lashed out.

He slammed the "weakness of the (Polish) state, which was not up to the task of protecting its own president".

In a stark sign of splits in Poland's establishment, the Kaczynski twins' Law and Justice party (PiS) boycotted official events and organised its own.

Earlier Sunday, at 8:41 am (0641 GMT), the exact time of the April 10, 2010, tragedy in Smolensk, western Russia, a visibly emotional President Bronislaw Komorowski paid silent tribute to his predecessor and the 95 other victims in a Warsaw church.

Bowing before a memorial plaque, Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- both from the centre-right Civic Platform (PO), PiS's nemesis -- placed candles, a traditional mourning symbol in deeply Catholic Poland.

Later, in a Warsaw cemetery where many of the victims lie, Komorowski appealed for the tragedy not to be a source of strife.

"A year on, we should see what is great, what is good," he said.

"One of the finest memorials we can build together is to care for the dreams and passion of those who died, so that they find followers who will carry their passion, dreams and hopes into the future," he added.

At the presidential palace, thousands of Kaczynski supporters gathered before a makeshift shrine. At the foot of a birchwood cross was a model of Poland's presidential Tupolev 154 jet broken in two.

Lech Kaczynski's delegation had been bound for a commemoration in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk, for some 22,000 captured Polish officers slain by the Soviet secret police in 1940.

On Saturday and Sunday, Warsaw and Moscow traded barbs over the removal of a Polish-language memorial plaque in Smolensk which stated that the crash victims were heading to Katyn.

The Polish foreign ministry warned that Komorowski may not lay a wreath Monday when he meets with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev there, but PiS demanded he cancel the trip outright.

On Sunday, Russia expressed "bewilderment" at Polish protests, saying Warsaw had been informed in advance about a bilingual plaque that did not mention Katyn.

Poland has also contested Russia's probe of the disaster, which blamed the Polish pilots for trying to land in fog.

Warsaw has complained of a whitewash of the Russian air traffic controllers and the shoddy state of Smolensk airport.

After Russia released its findings in January, Jaroslaw Kaczynski dubbed it a "mockery" and claimed that Tusk's government was being too soft on Russia. Tusk appealed for the issue not to be politicised.

Besides Lech Kaczynski and his wife, the crash victims included other senior politicians, military top brass and -- in a bitter twist -- relatives of those shot at Katyn.

The World War II massacre has remained a thorn in Polish-Russian ties.

Moscow blamed Nazi Germany until 1990, and Poles could not discuss it openly until Warsaw's post-war communist regime fell in 1989.

It has rarely been discussed in Russia since the Soviet Union's 1991 demise.

A year ago, Poles mourned together across party lines, but that unity is long gone.

The Kaczynskis, who clashed frequently with fellow European Union leaders and Moscow, were icons for conservative nationalists but often loathed by opponents.

PiS lost its presidential brake on PO when Komorowski beat Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a snap election after the crash.

The anniversary comes six months before a general election, with PiS trailing PO in polls.

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Nazi warplane lying off UK coast is intact

Reuters/Port of London/handout

A World War II era German bomber is seen using high-tech sonar equipment on the sea floor off southeast England. 

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) – A rare World War Two German bomber, shot down over the English Channel in 1940 and hidden for years by shifting sands at the bottom of the sea, is so well preserved a British museum wants to raise it.

The Dornier 17 -- thought to be world's last known example -- was hit as it took part in the Battle of Britain.

It ditched in the sea just off the Kent coast, southeast England, in an area known as the Goodwin Sands.

The plane came to rest upside-down in 50 feet of water and has become partially visible from time to time as the sands retreated before being buried again.

Now a high-tech sonar survey undertaken by the Port of London Authority (PLA) has revealed the aircraft to be in a startling state of preservation.

Ian Thirsk, from the RAF Museum at Hendon in London, told the BBC he was "incredulous" when he first heard of its existence and potential preservation.

"This aircraft is a unique aeroplane and it's linked to an iconic event in British history, so its importance cannot be over-emphasized, nationally and internationally," he said.

"It's one of the most significant aeronautical finds of the century."

Known as "the flying pencil," the Dornier 17 was designed as a passenger plane in 1934 and was later converted for military use as a fast bomber, difficult to hit and theoretically able to outpace enemy fighter aircraft.

Click image to see photos of World War II German bomber

Reuters/Royal Air Force Museum London/handout

In all, some 1,700 were produced but they struggled in the war with a limited range and bomb load capability and many were scrapped afterwards.

Striking high-resolution images appear to show that the Goodwin Sands plane suffered only minor damage, to its forward cockpit and observation windows, on impact.

"The bomb bay doors were open, suggesting the crew jettisoned their cargo," said PLA spokesman Martin Garside.

Two of the crew members died on impact, while two others, including the pilot, were taken prisoner and survived the war.

"The fact that it was almost entirely made of aluminum and produced in one piece may have contributed to its preservation," Garside told Reuters.

The plane is still vulnerable to the area's notorious shifting sands and has become the target of recreational divers hoping to salvage souvenirs.

The RAF museum has launched an appeal to raise funds for the lifting operation.

(Editing by Steve Addison)

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