NPR 2010-04-12

President Obama is holding meetings with world leaders on the eve of a nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C. One notable absence from this week’s conference is the prime minister of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent decision to keep expanding settlements in the West Bank over U.S. objections is straining relations. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is downplaying any notion that Israel’s absence makes matters worse, “We have a deep and very close relationship between the United States and Israel that goes back many years. That doesn’t mean we’re gonna agree on anything. We don’t agree with any of our friends on everything.” Clinton appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. Security surrounding the summit is getting tighter, as NPR’s Danielle Karson reports.

Wall-high chain-link fences are already up around Washington, D.C.’s Convention Center where the summit is being held. The security perimeter 1 will be tight for good reason. It will be the largest gathering 2 of world leaders hosted by a U.S. president since the 1945 San Francisco Conference that led to the founding of the United Nations. Once they get down to business tomorrow, the White House has laid out an ambitious goal. It wants to make the security of nuclear materials every country's business, not just the bilateral 3 effort between the U.S. and Russia. President Obama campaigned on a pledge to rid the world of nuclear weapons. His goal is to secure all nuclear material within four years. For NPR News, I’m Danielle Karson in Washington.

Poland enters a week of mourning following the plane crash in western Russia that killed its president. All 96 people onboard died in the accident, which occurred as the pilot attempted to land in heavy fog. Russian officials say 24 bodies have been identified so far. Peter Van Dyke 4 has details from Moscow.

The bodies of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were identified by his twin brother Jaroslaw, the leader of Poland’s Law and Justice Party. The plane was carrying a delegation 5 of top public figures to a ceremony for the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre 6 when thousands of Polish officers were killed by Soviet 7 secret police. Russian officials were reported saying the pilot ignored air traffic control instructions not to land. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is overseeing the investigation 8 and recordings 9 of communications between the cockpit and the ground or being replayed from the plane’s black boxes. Most of the bodies recovered at the crash site have been flown to Moscow to be identified. For NPR News, I’m Peter Van Dyke in Moscow.

Tens of thousands of Poles are paying final respects to their leader whose death yesterday sent shockwaves across the nation. The body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski returned today to Poland from Russia. Again, his plane had crashed and dozens of Poland’s top brass 10 were also killed on that flight. Their bodies are being identified and are expected to return to Poland in the coming days.

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National elections are underway in Sudan. The long-awaited vote is expected to favor incumbent 11 President Omar al-Bashir who came to power in a military coup 12, but Bashir’s anticipated victory maybe undermined by a lack of strong competition. NPR’s Gwen Tompkins reports that many in the political opposition 13 are boycotting 14 the process.

Omar al-Bashir voted Sunday at the St. Francis School in Khartoum near the army headquarters compound where he lives. Election’s rules forbid candidates from making statements on election day, so he did not speak to the press, along queue of army soldiers and police waited patiently to vote. But for many Sudanese, who have also waited 24 years to participate in multi-party elections, the choices have dwindled 15. Most of Bashir’s strongest competitors have dropped out of the race, citing vote rigging on the part of the ruling party. Bashir says his opponents are complaining because he’s more popular than they are. International monitors are witnessing the vote, but a worrying sign appears to be that the indelible ink being used to mark people as having voted once is not so indelible. It appears to rub off fairly easily. Gwen Tompkins, NPR News, Khartoum.

The president of Chile where earthquake recovery is still underway is looking for advice from New Orleans’ post-Hurricane Katrina. President Sebastian Pinera toured the Louisiana City today with Mayor Ray Nagin. Pinera says it’ll take several years for Chile to recover from February’s 8.8-magnitude quake. That temblor triggered a tsunami 16 and devastated 17 many coastal 18 areas.

In Iraq, the coalition 19 led by the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is calling for a recount of votes from last month’s elections. They say that up to 750,000 votes have been tainted 20 from fraud.