Report: Russian intelligence suspects US hand in SuperJet crash

Although aviation experts dismissed Russian intelligence's suspicions of a US hand in the May 9 plane crash in Indonesia, the many unanswered questions about the crash fuel conspiracy theories.?

Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, suspects that US-inspired industrial espionage may have caused the May 9 crash in Indonesia?of a Sukhoi Superjet 100?? Russia's only hopeful entry in the civilian aviation market ? according to Moscow's leading tabloid newspaper, the usually reliable and officially connected?Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

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While most Russian aviation experts contacted today dismissed the sabotage theory, they say there is a deepening mystery about how Russia's most modern civil aircraft, with all its systems apparently functioning perfectly, came to slam into the side of a mile-high volcano during a routine demonstration flight.

"All the theories put forward so far are badly flawed, there is a shortage of hard information and there are a lot of irresponsible rumors," says Roman Gusarov, editor of Avia.ru, an online aviation journal. "I am afraid that Russia is not going to emerge from this story without taking a black eye."

Citing an unnamed GRU general, Komsomolskaya Pravda?claimed that electronic jamming of the plane's on board equipment is the most plausible explanation for how the jet, which was making a demonstration flight out of Jakarta airport with 45 people aboard, smashed into a mountainside even though an initial investigation has found that its terrain and collision avoidance systems were all functioning properly.

"We are investigating the theory that it was industrial sabotage," the GRU officer is quoted as saying. He said that Russian intelligence has long monitored the activities of US military electronic specialists at the Jakarta airport.

"We know that they have special equipment that can cut communications between an aircraft and the ground or interfere with the parameters on board," he said. "For example, the plane is flying at one altitude, but after interference from the ground onboard equipment shows another."

The investigation has so far turned up the plane's "black box" cockpit voice recorder, which shows that no system-failure alarms went off during the plane's final minutes, nor did the crew take any audible emergency action. But the aircraft's digital flight recorder, which monitors flight systems and engine performance, remains missing in the rough jungle terrain around Mount Salak, where at least seven other deadly air disasters have occurred.

The biggest question about the crash is why the SuperJet's pilot,?Alexander Yablontsev, one of Russia's most experienced test pilots, requested permission to descend amid a rainstorm in a notoriously mountainous area ? and why a ground controller in Jakarta granted that permission.

"Maybe he didn't see that the plane was heading straight at the mountain. On the other hand, we don't rule out the possibility that this was deliberate industrial sabotage to drive our aircraft from the market," an unnamed official at Sukhoi, the plane's manufacturer, told Komsomolskaya Pravda. "Fortunately, we don't foresee any loss of orders [for the SuperJet]."

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Tips To Manage A Long Distance Relationship

Long distance relationships are difficult to maintain but yet I know many out there who are doing it just right. All you need is to have a good understanding of your love and you are going to be just fine. Beneath you?ll find some tips about how to have a well-balanced long-distance relationship.

Before you both separate, discuss among yourselves some broad limits which both of you should not cross and have some trust in each other. Not taking the time and pain to discuss important matters such as setting up of relationship boundaries could cause you to suffer in the future.

Communication is going to be the key in your relationship now and so knowing each other really well is going to help you a lot. You both will also need to take the compromise to a whole new level which you haven?t done before.

Find some time for your relationship and call your partner whenever you?re free. If you?re thinking how to communicate with your partner, then go for a phone call as that?s pretty much the best way to be in touch. Staying in touch with each other has it?s own importance in a relationship, something that can make or break a relationship. I?m sure it is not at all hard to stay in touch with your partner when you have just so many mediums to communicate through and some of them are even free.

Most people face the tough challenge of feelings of insecurity towards their partner when in a distant relationship. Insecurity is something that almost every person in a distant relationship faces and so you must be aware of this too. It is usually the distance which makes people annoyed and there comes the insecure feelings towards the partners. You must give proper attention to this issue and not neglect it as it would hurt you in future.

By having fun and interesting conversations with each other, the relationship can remain healthy for a longer period of time. Flirting is one of the best ways to keep the relationship alive and kicking. It will help you both to maintain the kind of chemistry that you shared previously.

Two people can never be successful in managing a long distance relationship if they lack the understanding between each other. Having a sense of understanding between the two partners is just not enough as they also need to have the patience enough to compromise all the time. You can never manage a long distance relationship if your relationship lacks any of the two points I just discussed.

Much of the issues of these kinds of relationships have been covered in this article. So I hope you like my article and benefit your relationship from it.

Jay is in a relationship for many years and hasn?t been happier. He and his partner has been together for several years now. If you have difficulties in your relationship, ask him for help. Check out his read and his dating tips.

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Charlie Sheen: Out of Control, Partying Like a Madman With Porn Stars Again, Friends Say

Stop us if you've heard this one.

Charlie Sheen has been on a booze-and-drug-fueled bender since he wrapped Anger Management last month, a source close to the warlock said.

The 46-year-old is again partying with "a gaggle of adult film stars" - and for a time, ex-wife Brooke Mueller - at his Mulholland Estates mansion.

Mueller is back in rehab. So out-of-control is Charlie now that some of his closest confidantes have begged him to join her there to treat his addictions.

Not surprisingly, he dismisses that idea.

“Yes, Charlie is partying,” a source says. “He doesn’t want to stop. In his eyes, he thinks, ‘I’m having fun, so what?’ The show has wrapped."

"But it is a problem… a major problem. He has alienated his kids and commitments and is effectively locking himself up in a house with women.”

"Even people at Charlie’s house are trying to talk sense into him. He needs help, but he wants nothing to do with it. His rage is coming back.”

Asked for comment, Sheen, via his rep, told Celebuzz to “consider the source.”

In a May 18 Tweet, Sheen - whose new series on FX premieres June 28, wrote : “Done w/ #AngerManagement 1st 10… so this weekend will be epic!”

And the one after, and the one after that, and ...

[Photo: WENN.com]

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Modine 4Q profit up, 2013 outlook disappoints

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Naomi Judd gets her own call-in radio show

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? Naomi Judd's new limited-run SiriusXM radio talk show has no safety net and even the country star says with a laugh she isn't sure that's a great idea.

"If you've been at a press conference, you know I've said things I haven't thought of ? whoa," Judd said. "That's why they asked me. And there's no 5-second delay. I'm wandering the woods without a map."

Judd hopes "Think Twice," which starts its six-week run of hour-long Friday morning episodes June 8, will be a place the satellite radio network's 22 million subscribers can turn to for a free-form discussion of ideas and topics, from current events and politics to hot-button issues like abortion and evolution.

"I want people to think twice," Judd said in a phone interview. "That's why I came up with the title, because in today's culture, in this ADHD culture, people don't understand the real important stuff. I want people to be talking about this stuff at the water cooler, around the kitchen table. I may have a total brainiac on who's one of the most important people in the world, but I want to translate it for standard-issue folks because that's where my heart is. I want to tell them how this is affecting their everyday life."

First up, though, the 66-year-old Grammy winner will examine her own life and her relationship with daughter Ashley Judd. Mother and daughter will sit down together in front of a studio audience next Tuesday to tape the debut episode.

Judd's voice filled with emotion when she described her feelings about the interview. She said that though the two have spent time together since Ashley Judd published a memoir last year that placed stress on their relationship, they have not spoken about the book or the revelations that Ashley was sexually abused as a child, including by a family member.

When "All That is Bitter & Sweet" was published last year, Ashley Judd said she'd never told her mother of the abuse. Both Naomi Judd and her other daughter, duo partner Wynonna Judd, say they also suffered sexual abuse.

"I admit I'm a little nervous about doing it because this is the first time that Ashley and I have ever done anything together," Judd said. "And I'm going to ask her about what happened in our relationship ? whoa, I have to take a deep breath before that one."

Judd said she would also ask her daughter about her feelings over the recent cancellation of her television series "Missing" and her emotions watching her husband, three-time Indy 500 champion Dario Franchitti race in the aftermath of the death of his close friend Dan Wheldon.

"I know she'll want to talk about her severe depression and share some ways that have gotten her to such a happy, stable place," Judd said. "But I think really it's probably going to be about our relationship because there's some ... Oh, boy."

Judd says she has now read "Bitter & Sweet." In the end, she said she felt it was her duty as a parent to read the book. Now she thinks the things she learned during the process can be instructive for parents who are dealing with similarly difficult issues.

"I had to take a deep breath before I opened the book and I read it by myself when I was in a good mood and had space and time," Judd said. "I knew I would probably be hollering out loud at certain things ? 'It didn't happen that way! I was there!' ? but (I was) acknowledging that anyone in a relationship has a completely different reality, and I wanted to know what my daughter's personal experiences and journeys were."

The remainder of the season will be live call-in shows that will be replayed Saturday morning. She's pulling her guest list from her personal rolodex, which is full of Nobel Prize winners and leaders in the science, medical and technology fields, deep thinkers and interesting people.

Guests already scheduled include National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis S. Collins and Dr. Helen Morrison, a forensic psychiatrist specializing in serial killers. And there's a handful of physicists she'd love to quiz.

Yes, physicists.

"I don't take vacations," Judd said. "I love the ocean, but I'm just not one to lie on the beach. So for three days I went up to Princeton for a seminar on quantum physics."

It's that sort of insatiable curiosity she wants to share with her listeners.

"I hope to blow away stereotypes," she said. "I'm not just a big-haired redhead country singer who dresses flamboyantly, has this wicked sense of humor and wears rhinestones. They have no idea about my underground secret life for 20 years."

___

Follow www.twitter.com/AP_Country for the latest country music news. And follow Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott at www.twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .

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Emmys to combine acting awards for movies, minis

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Lee family scraps over some of Samsung riches

SEOUL (Reuters) - Lawyers for Lee Kun-hee said on Wednesday the chairman of Samsung Electronics had been chosen by his father, the Samsung Group's founder, to lead the conglomerate and so was free to transfer shares of group companies to maintain control.

Lee, South Korea's richest man, is defending three lawsuits from relatives who claim around $1 billion of Samsung assets they say Lee inherited and hid in nominee accounts.

There's little chance Lee will lose control of Samsung, one of South Korea's chaebol - the sprawling family-owned industrial groups that wield huge economic and political clout - but the public spat over a small part of the Samsung fortune may dent his plans for a smooth handover to his only son, Jay Lee.

In opening remarks before a packed Seoul Central District Court, Lee's lawyers argued that the group's founder, Lee Byung-chull, made it clear before he died in 1987 that Lee would inherit his shares in Samsung Electronics and Samsung Life, an insurance company at the heart of a web of group cross-shareholdings.

"The Samsung founder had said clearly he will have Lee Kun-hee take over from him to lead the group ... and that naturally includes his will to transfer shares (of key Samsung companies) to the defendant to ensure his management control," Yun Jae-yun, a former judge representing Lee, told the court.

Lawyers for Lee's elder brother, Maeng-hee, who is in his 80s, a sister and another relative said they did not know until last year about $3.8 billion of assets that Lee inherited.

The lawyers, from Yoon and Yang, said Samsung's founder had never said that any plan for Lee to assume control of the group included inheriting all his father's assets. "The plaintiffs had not been aware of the existence of such assets held in nominee accounts, and these should be distributed to those entitled to the inheritance," they said.

KEEPING CONTROL

In recent weeks Maeng-hee called his younger septuagenarian brother "greedy" and "childish". Kun-hee has said Maeng-hee was turfed out of the family and not judged fit to lead Samsung, which was founded in 1938 and has grown into the world's largest smartphone, TV and memory chip maker.

Samsung on Tuesday launched its latest Galaxy S III smartphone into an expectant market. Samsung sold 44.5 million smartphones in January-March - equal to nearly 21,000 every hour - giving it 30.6 percent market share, well ahead of Apple Inc's rival iPhone.

The hearing, which will resume on June 27, may shed more light on how the Lee family maintains its grip on the phones-to-ships group, some details of which emerged in a 2008 lawsuit when Kun-hee was found guilty of financial wrongdoing and tax evasion. He was later pardoned by South Korea's president.

"It's generally not in one's favor to bet against the House of Samsung and the chairman for domestic legal issues - where such influence often transcends economic borders into legal ones," Jasper Kim, a professor of international business law and finance at Ewha University's graduate school, said before Wednesday's hearing.

EVER EVERLAND

The Samsung Group is effectively controlled by Samsung Everland, a small zoo and theme park company with equity capital of just $10.7 million. If Kun-hee's stake in Samsung Life - he is the biggest shareholder with 20.76 percent - falls below Everland's 19.34 percent, Everland would, under South Korean law, be forced to sell stakes in non-financial companies, including Samsung Electronics.

Maeng-hee and the other plaintiffs are seeking a quarter of Kun-hee's stake in Samsung Life.

In the run-up to the hearing, Hyundai Securities analyst Jun Yong-ki predicted Lee would prefer to settle in cash because losing some of his stake in Samsung Life could spark a bigger ownership restructuring across the group.

Samsung has declined to comment as the litigation is a personal, civil case.

FAMILY FRICTION

Lee Maeng-hee was chosen to lead Samsung in 1967 when his father retired, but his aggressive management style caused friction with the founder's confidants, according to several books about Samsung. Ties were finally severed after a coup by the founder's second son, Chang-hee, who told the presidential office his father had a $1 million slush fund overseas.

Lee Byung-chull believed his eldest son was also involved in the plot to discredit him. He exiled Chang-hee to the United States, and returned as chairman himself. In 1976, when diagnosed with cancer, he decided Kun-hee should take over the business. Chang-hee died in 1991.

In a recent book on Maeng-hee, "Prince Sado of Samsung", Lee Yong-u, no relation, wrote that Maeng-hee failed in his succession bid due to a conspiracy by the founder's inner circle, which included Kun-hee's father-in-law.

PUBLIC ANGER

As and when Jay Lee takes over, there is likely to be closer public scrutiny amid growing anger over chaebols' dominance in an economy where wealth gaps are widening.

"It's not clear whether the share transfer scheme to Jay Lee will be clawed back by the courts at this point, from a legal purview," said Ewha's Kim.

Jay Lee, 43, has yet to make any significant mark on the business, beyond a failed e-commerce venture during the dotcom bubble. Critics say he lacks his father's charisma, business insight and entrepreneurship. The snappily dressed and bespectacled Lee has a degree in East Asian history from Seoul National University, an MBA from Keio University in Japan and also attended the doctoral program at Harvard Business School. He has two children and went through one of Korea's highest profile divorce cases.

The Lee family has been criticized by activist shareholders over its obscure share dealings and, longer term, there is a risk that a focus on keeping it in the family may damage the group.

"The current Samsung Group transfer of power dynamics resembles the Roman Empire at or near its peak," said Ewha's Kim.

($1 = 1172.7000 Korean won)

(Additional reporting by Choonsik Yoo, David Chance and Jungyoon Lee; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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