.Eight die in helicopter crash in Kazakhstan Fri.

ASTANA, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- A helicopter crash in Kazakhstan on
Friday claimed eight lives. There were no survivors.
According to the emergency situations department of the East
Kazakhstan Region, the wreck was spotted near the village of Makanchi.

"All of the eight people on board died. The debris are scattered over
a surface of 800 square meters," the department said.
The causes of the crash are unknown yet.
A Mi-817 helicopter left Ust-Kamenogorsk on Friday for the village of
Makanchi, the Urdzhar district, for a search and rescue operation. From
there it was to proceed to the villages of Karabuta, Kokterek and
Blagodarnoye. At 11:05 on Friday the copter left Makanchi. The crew
established communication contact with the air traffic controller. The
next communication session was due in one hour later, but no more messages
from the crew followed.

.Russia,India to sign contract for sketching 5th generation jet soon.

NEW DELHI, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and India will sign a
contract for a technical sketch project of fifth generation jets within
several months, the head of Sukhoi corporation, Mikhail Pogosian, said on
Friday.
"We are in the process of negotiations. They will be completed in the
near future and we shall ink a contract for the technical sketch project
of this plane then," Pogosian said, adding that such major undertakings
were very time-consuming.
This is one of the reasons why the contract was not signed during
Vladimir Putin's visit to India, he added.
On February 16 Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko said that
a Russian-Indian project for jointly developing a fifth generation fighter
would enter into the active implementation phase this year.
Russia and India, he said, "are starting joint work on this product
being well aware that they will share the copyrights."
Also, Khristenko said that the parties would share benefits from
selling the plane not only on their domestic markets, but also on the
markets of third countries.
"This is an unprecedented situation. India is the sole country with
which we have decided to establish such partnership," Khristenko said.

.One police killed while chasing criminals in Moscow.

MOSCOW, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- One police was killed and another one,
gravely injured while chasing criminals in the west of Moscow, the officer
on duty at the Moscow police force public relations department, Anatoly
Lastovetsky, told Itar-Tass.
According to the official, several criminals escaping from pursuit in
a BMW car opened fire on a police patrol.
"According to preliminary information, a prompt reaction police crew
from the Kuntsevo police department was chasing a BMW car, when the
unidentified persons inside the suspicious vehicle opened fire," the
official said. The incident occurred at Polotskaya Street, 10. The
criminals escaped. A search is on.

.Ukraine needs more balanced language policy - parlt speaker.

KIEV, March 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine needs a more balanced state
language policy, the speaker of parliament, Vladimir Litvin, said on
Friday.
"We need a special government agency to address this issue, because in
practice nobody cares about this problem," Litvin said. The parliamentary
press-service circulated his statement on Friday evening.
Asked by a television channel about the possibility Russian might be
awarded the status of a second state language, Litvin replied "all
discussions on this issue must be brought to an end."
"In the current situation, even if one imagines, quite hypothetically,
that we shall have Russian as a second official language, then we shall
have only one state language in fact, and that language will be Russian,"
he explained.
At the same time Litvin stressed the importance of creating equitable
conditions for all languages in Ukraine.
"I am against a crackdown on the Russian language, but I am also
against being a calm and idle spectator to the neglect of the Ukrainian
language. The conclusion is quite obvious. If we have no state language,
we shall not have the Ukrainian state. One must regard this as an axiom
and act accordingly," Litvin said.

-0-str


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next