
www.timesofearth.com MOSCOW — Several senior members of the Polish government including Lech Kaczynski, the president, have died in a plane crash near Smolensk airport in western Russia. A total of 96 people - mostly Polish officials - were killed on Saturday when the president's Tupolev Tu-154 plane went down in heavy fog, Russia's emergency ministry said. The high-level Polish delegation was on its way to the city of Smolensk to take part in reconciliatory ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre where Russian forces killed more than 20000 Poles. Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president and prime minister, offered their condolences to the people of Poland and pledged a thorough investigation into the incident. Meanwhile, authorities in Warsaw, the Polish capital, announced an early presidential election would be held soon. "In line with the constitution, we will have to hold an early presidential poll," Pawel Gras, a government spokesman, said. "For now, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, is automatically ... the acting president." Polish officials have confirmed that Kaczynski's wife had accompanied the president on the flight. Slawomir Skrzypek, the head of Poland's central bank; Andrzej Kremer, the deputy foreign minister; Franciszek Gagor, the army chief of staff, and at least 15 members of parliament were also on board. Sergei Antufiev, the governor of Russia's Smolensk region, told <b>...</b>
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