Polish govt delegation to finish investigation of presidential plane crash in Jan.

WARSAW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The Polish governmental commission
that is investigating the crash of the presidential plane in Russia in
April of this year will finish its work in January 2011,
Interior Minister Jerzy Miller, who heads the governmental commission
that is investigating the plane crash, said the realistic date for the
completion of the probe would be January 2011.
The minister, who earlier said the investigation could be completed
this year, admitted that the work of the experts has been slowed down by
the fact that Poland has to prepare its conclusions on the draft report of
the Interstate Aviation Committee by December 19.
"Poland will most likely use all of the 60 days it has in order to
work out a position on the IAC report," Miller said, adding that the
commission would face certain difficulties because the IAC report uses
"systematics that differs from the practice used in Poland" but in full
compliance with the Chicago Convention.
"We will have to study 210 pages of a very precise and detailed, at
times, but still concise description. Second, we will have to compare them
with our conclusions. Third, the report contains references to certain
documents some of which we know and some we don't. Our commission is
facing two months of very complex work that warrants attention," the
minister said.

.Lavrov, Sikorski to co-chair meeting of committee on cooperation
strategy.

MOSCOW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov will pay a working visit to Poland on Thursday, October 28, to
co-chair, with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, a meeting of the
Russian-Polish Cooperation Strategy Committee.
Lavrov is also scheduled to meet with President of the Republic of
Poland Bronislaw Komorowski.
The current VI meeting of the Strategic Committee (the previous one
took place in Moscow in May 2009) will be held in an enlarged format
involving representatives of the relevant Russian and Polish agencies, as
well as the main focal points for bilateral cooperation mechanisms. The
main objective is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the state of
Russian-Polish relations, including existing problematic issues, and to
identify measures to further enhance bilateral cooperation.
"Along with the pressing issues of cooperation in economy, energy and
transport an important place in the upcoming debate will be occupied by
the issues of strengthening ties in science, culture and tourism and
intensifying youth exchanges and contacts between civil societies in
Russia and Poland. Considerable attention will also be paid to topics of
interregional cooperation. In this regard, representatives of the
Kaliningrad region and St. Petersburg, as well as the Polish regions which
maintain the most extensive links with the regions of Russia are invited
to the meeting. Panellists will include representatives of the upper
chambers of the parliaments of the two countries," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

.Rostelecom gets license for cable broadcasting in 75 Russian regions.

MOSCOW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's national long-distance
operator Rostelecom has received a license allowing it to provide services
for cable broadcasting in 75 Russian regions in the next five years.
The company plans to actively develop paid television services using
both existing and new network infrastructure in these regions.
Rostelecom will become a united telecommunication company after
consolidation of inter-regional companies of the state-owned holding
company Svyazinvest.
"The strategic task of the united company is to control more than half
of the Russian market of paid television services by 2015," Rostelecom
Commercial Director Pavel Zaitsev said.
To this end, "the company tries to use all available technologies and
receive all the necessary licenses," he said.
Svyazinvest's companies are currently servicing more than 750,000 paid
television subscribers and account for 4 percent of the commercial
television market in Russia.

.Clinton to speak on American Leadership in the Asia-Pacific Region.

WASHINGTON, October 28 (Itar-Tass) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton will deliver a policy address on American leadership in the
Asia-Pacific region at the Kahala Hotel and Resort in Honolulu, Hawaii on
Thursday, October 28.
The speech is being sponsored by the East-West Centre, in cooperation
with Pacific Forum CSIS, the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, the
Japan-America Society of Hawaii, the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security
Studies, the APEC 2011 Hawaii Host Committee and the University of Hawaii,
the State Department said.
This is Clinton's sixth major trip to the region, it has many stops
and it is intended to send a strong message of U.S. engagement on a range
of issues - strategic, political, multilateral. "We'll be dealing with
some of the key institutions that are evolving in Asia and also economic
and trade as well," Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell told a briefing.
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