TODAY: Hockey world reels as Russia plane crash wipes out top team; attention turns to poor flight safety record. Oleg Kashin receives German media award; prison doctors instructed to monitor prisoners’ health; opposition activists seek attention of Danish Queen. Moscow warns against supporting insurrection in Syria despite talks with French Foreign Minister; President Medvedev delights oenologists.

In the latest in a series of fatal crashes in Russia, a plane carrying one of the country’s top ice hockey teams, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, has crashed, killing 43 of the 45 people on board, decimating the team.  The two survivors of the Yak-42 disaster are critically injured.  ‘This is the darkest day in the history of our sport. This is not only a Russian tragedy, the Lokomotiv roster included players and coaches from 10 nations’ said International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel.  Russia’s worst sporting tragedy in decades highlights, as this article points out, Russia’s dubious airline safety record.  Poor quality of aviation fuel is a possible cause of the accident, according to an aviation industry source quoted here.  US NHL coach Dave King remembers players in Russia referring to one particularly decrepit charter airplane as ‘Pterodactyl Air’.  President Medvedev has arrived in the city of Yaroslavl to pay his respects at the crash site.