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MOSCOW: The Ukrainian women activists who tore up the Indian flag in a topless act in Kiev last month to protest India's reported tightening of visa rules for young women from Ukraine may land in jail for up to four years. Carrying placards that read "Ukraine is not brothel" and "I am not prostitute", the women had climbed up to the balcony of the Indian ambassador's residence in the Ukrainian capital, after stripping up to the waist braving sub-zero temperatures to lodge a novel protest. They were enraged over the Indian Foreign Ministry's reported instructions to carry out detailed checks...

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress Feb. 2 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Poland of F-16 support and munitions, as well as associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $447 million. The Government of Poland has requested a possible sale of 93 AIM-9X-2 SIDEWINDER Block II Tactical Missiles, 4 CATM-9X-2 Captive Air Training Missiles, 65 AIM-120C-7 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, 42 GBU-49 Enhanced PAVEWAY II 500 lb Bombs, 200 GBU-54 (2000 lb) Laser Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) Bombs, 642 BLU-111 (500 lb) General Purpose Bombs, 127 MK-82 (500 lb) General...

While the neo-conservative Polish Bishops lead the country slowly into the abyss, the apostolate of the SSPX blooms in the land. (kreuz.net) The apostlate of the Society of St. Pius X is growing "surprisingly fast" even for the conditions of the Society. This was written by the District Superior for East Europe, Fr. Karl Stehlin in his Christmas letter. The Society can only devote twelve priests in eastern Europe. Actually, the present pastoral work would require thirty priests -- so says Father Stehlin. In Warsaw the Fathers will be shortly leading a third old Mass on Sunday. Every week there...

SAN DIEGO, November 29, 2011— During his time as President of the United States, Ronald Reagan became a leading anti-Communist champion alongside Great Britain’s Lady Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. He famously described the former Soviet Union as “the Evil Empire,” inspiring individuals in that troubled country to seek an alternative to Marxist-Leninism. It is undeniable that he was a champion for freedom here and aboard. People from all walks of life, political persuasions, and dispositions revered Reagan as a man. More importantly, people around the world continue to embrace this conservative stalwart’s message.

The Czech Republic announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing from plans to participate in the United States missile defense program out of frustration at its diminished role in the system... The administration of President George W. Bush had initially proposed stationing 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland and a radar facility in the Czech Republic. But in September 2009, the Obama administration scrapped those plans and proposed a revamped program with an unspecified role for the Czechs. Two months later, it offered the Czech Republic the possibility of hosting a separate early warning system. The shift prompted accusations from Republican critics...

EASTERN EUROPE: A new game is in town, it's called "300" like the movie and is being practiced in the forests of Poland,Byloruss,Latvia,Russia,Romania and other eastern european countries.

Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir by Fyodor Vasilevich Mochulsky, Oxford University Press, 2010 The Firm: This Inside Story of the Stasi by Gary Bruce, Oxford University Press, 2010 An entire American generation has come of age since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. The new threat is Islamic radicalism, and only North Korea, a nation that has developed a nuclear weapons program and missile delivery systems, which it sells to other rogue regimes, gets much attention as a holdover of the "second world" -- the Communist nations that were for...

Bosnian Serbs in the Republika Srpska are glad that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled the Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence was legal. The Bosnian Serbs have wanted to exit Bosnia and join Serbia for quite some time. The Bosnian government officially says its borders are fixed, but then, Serbia's are not. One Bosnian Serb official made the interesting argument that the ICJ's ruling supersedes the Dayton Accords which ended the Bosnian War and established Bosnia's current government. In August several other Balkan countries also indicated they are very interested in the ICJ's July 22 decision. The court declared...

Regulators on Friday shut down a big community bank based in Chicago that has been known for its social activism but racked by financial troubles in recent months. It was the 114th U.S. bank to fail this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over ShoreBank, with $2.16 billion in assets and $1.54 billion in deposits. Urban Partnership Bank, a new institution comprised of several big Wall Street banks and a private foundation, agreed to assume ShoreBank's deposits and nearly all its assets... In an unusual move, the FDIC allowed some of ShoreBank's executives to continue running the restructured bank......

<p>The United States will deploy SM-3 interceptor missiles in Poland between 2015 and 2018 under its plan to defend NATO allies in Europe from possible Iranian attack, a Polish official said on Thursday.</p> <p>The interceptors, which target short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, are part of President Barack Obama's revamped missile defence system.</p>

Crisis-hit Romania cannot afford to purchase second-hand F-16 combat aircraft this year, Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu said. - There is no money for the F-16s, I can't see where we could get one percent of GDP (gross domestic product) in order to buy military equipment - Vladescu told Money Channel TV station. - Such an expense is downright impossible at this moment - he added. Romania had announced in March its decision to purchase 24 F-16 aircraft currently used by the US air forces, at a cost of 1.3 billion dollars (1.1 billion dollars), in order to replace its ageing,...

A U.S. Patriot missile battery has arrived in Poland as part of an agreement to upgrade the NATO ally's air defenses, the U.S. embassy said on Monday, in a deployment likely to irritate neighboring Russia.The battery, manned by up to 150 U.S. troops, will be stationed for about one month four times a year in Morag, northern Poland, close to Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad. Its main mission is to train Polish military personnel. U.S. troops were unloading 37 railway cars of equipment on Monday, the embassy said. U.S. and Polish officials are due to visit the site on Wednesday and...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday invited Ukraine to join a security bloc of former Soviet republics, a step that would draw Ukraine closer into Moscow's embrace. Ukraine has forged warm ties with its former Soviet masters since the February election of President Viktor Yanukovich as president. Yanukovich, an ex-mechanic from the Russian-leaning east of the country, frequently speaks Russian at public events. Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko shunned Russia and attempted to take his country into NATO, despite considerable public opposition. NATO members put Ukrainian membership on the back burner in 2008. Medvedev, on his first state visit to...

Poland will unveil its first US Patriot-type missiles battery at a military base in the northern town of Morag on May 26, a Polish defence ministry spokesman said Tuesday, AFP reports. "Ceremonies associated with the first rotation of the Patriot missile battery will be held Wednesday, May 26, in Morag", spokesman Janusz Sejmej said in a statement. Asked by AFP, the defence ministry's press service declined Tuesday to provide further details. The Polish military base at Morag, in the Mazurian Lakes region, is some 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Warsaw and just 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the border...

The saga of the Romanian air force’s selection of a “new” fighter to replace its MiG-21bis Lancer is becoming a heated political, industrial and economic battle that is not likely to be solved anytime soon. A buy of 24 secondhand U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighters was originally announced in March by Defense Minister Gabriel Opera, without a formal competition. The F-16s — old Block 25 airframes in service with the U.S. Air National Guard — were expected to be free, but the price tag eventually reached $1.3 billion (€1 billion) when training, weapons, aircraft modification and infrastructure requirements...

Troops from four NATO states will march through Red Square for the first time Sunday as Russia marks the 65th anniversary of the World War II victory with its biggest parade since the Soviet collapse. In a moment of huge symbolism, soldiers from Britain, France, Poland and the United States will step onto the square's famed cobbles while Russia proudly displays nuclear-capable missiles that once threatened Western targets. With Russia seeking to trumpet its post-Soviet resurgence, 10,000 Russian troops and military hardware including nuclear-capable Topol-M missiles will take part in a finely choreographed parade that has been months in rehearsal....

The first-ever battery of US Patriot missiles to be deployed in Poland will arrive in late May, defence ministry spokesman Janusz Sejmej told AFP on Wednesday. "Following preparations and consultations, the first deployment of a battery of anti-missile Patriots will start around May 24 in Morag," Sejmej said. The Polish military base at Morag, in the Mazurian Lakes region, is some 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Warsaw and just 60 kilometres (40 kilometres) from the border with Russia's Kaliningrad territory. Sejmej refused to say how long the deployment would last, but said it was "temporary". In February, Poland ratified...

April 30, military contingents conducting the QRA Baltic Air-policing mission will change during a ceremony at the LAF Siauliai Air Base: Polish Air Contingent with four MiG-29 will replace French soldiers. Polish forces are deploying air assets for the Baltic Air-policing mission for the third time (after service on January-March 2006 and March-June 2008 with MiG-29 fighter-jets). The majority of the present shift come from the 23rd Air Base and the 1st Tactical Squadron of the Polish Air Force based in Minsk Mazowiecki near Warsaw. The third Polish rotation named „Eagle 3" will comprise 100 troops, 8 of them pilots....

Eastern Europe After The Tragedy In Smolensk Source: by Andrew Wilson, European Council on Foreign Relations Posted on: 25th April 2010 Last week I was one of the legions of the stranded. First I was trapped by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Ukraine and then I found a car to Warsaw on the Monday after the service to commemorate the victims of the Smolensk crash in Kraków. There were still so many people to bury, with thousands watching the funeral of Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last president on the wartime government-in-exile, on a giant TV screen in the main square. But what...

The plane crash Saturday that wiped out much of Poland's political and military leadership -- including President Lech Kaczynski -- was a staggering blow to a nation that's struggled, successfully, to rebuild in the post- Communist era. It also offers the world, especially Washington, a chance to reflect on the Eastern European nation's strategic value as Russia seeks to reclaim a dominant role in global affairs. Democracy and capitalism have borne fruit in Poland, where Soviet hegemony -- and international communism -- began to unravel 30 years ago. Last year, Poland's GDP swelled by nearly 2 percent, even as much...

An ally who feared U.S. indifference. Tragedy In Smolensk: Lech Kaczynski was a Polish patriot and a friend of the West who believed in the defense of freedom and democracy. We don't have many friends like him, and we treated him shabbily. Numerologists might note the number 70 figured prominently in both the life and death of Poland's president. Kaczynski, 60, his wife Maria, an economist, and 95 others who died Saturday on their way to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the massacre of 22,000 Polish prisoners in the Katyn Forest in western Russia in 1940 by Stalin's secret...

Since the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989, the countries involved have explored different ways of dealing with the past. Albania took a different path to many, something which is still affecting it today, says the BBC's Iain MacInnes.> We met Ramiz Alia, the former leader of the Communist Party of Albania and, later, the first president of the post-communist Republic of Albania. Enver Hoxha, who led Albania from World War II until his death in 1985, designated Mr Alia as his successor as party leader. Mr Alia, who remained in power until 1992, has some regrets...

A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities as "Jihad Jane" was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft. The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges that Colleen R. LaRose, and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

Romania is holding talks with Washington to deploy about 20 interceptor missiles as part of a U.S. missile shield, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi said on Feb. 25. Earlier this month, the Balkan country's top defence body approved a U.S. proposal to include Romania in a system it said aimed at providing defence against attack by ballistic missile or mid-range rockets. The move angered Russia, eastern Europe's former Cold War master. "The talks will probably take a year and a half. They concern deploying 20 interceptor devices at different locations in Romania," Baconschi told a news conference in Sofia after...

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov on Wednesday played down Russian protests over Sofia's plans to join a United States missile shield in Europe. "This shield is not directed against threats coming from Russia. On the contrary, the threats that exist for us equally exist for our Russian friends," Mladenov told bTV television. "We have to find a way to protect us all," he added. Bulgaria said last week that it favoured new US plans for a shield in Europe to counter missile threat from Iran and the Middle East. But the announcement angered Russia, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanding...

Moldova's breakaway region of Trans-Dniester has reacted to US plans for a missile defence shield by offering to host new Russian missiles. The US wants to base elements of its missile defence shield in neighbouring Romania and Bulgaria - much to Russia's concern. Trans-Dniester leader Igor Smirnov said Russia had not yet asked it to be a host but any request would be approved. Trans-Dniester is already home to Russian troops and an arms dump. The Trans-Dniester region declared independence from Moldova in 1991. Sharp criticism Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has already asked for an explanation from the US...

Viktor Yanukovych, the expected next Ukrainian president, says he cannot rule out Russia's Black Sea Fleet remaining in Ukraine after its lease on the Sevastopol naval base expires in 2017. Preliminary results showed Yanukovych narrowly winning Ukraine's presidential election, and although the official count has not been released he has been congratulated by world leaders including the Russian and U.S. presidents. The Party of Regions leader is expected to move Ukraine away from the determinedly pro-Western stance of President Viktor Yushchenko, who vowed that Russia would have to find a new main base for its Black Sea Fleet once the...

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said Friday he favoured taking part in a new US missile defence system in Europe and a US ambassador indicated that talks have already started. Neighbouring Romania has angered Russia by announcing it wants to host medium-range ballistic missile interceptors as part of a US missile defence system expected to be operational by 2015. Asked about Bulgaria's stance on the system, Borisov said: "As a NATO member, we take into consideration everything that concerns Europe's security and will undertake the respective measures." "In my view, we have to show solidarity (with US plans) but Bulgaria's...

A high-level defense policy expert with ties to Washington, D.C. said the Czech Republic is in discussions with the Obama administration to host a command center for the United States' altered missile-defense plan. The official, who requested anonymity because discussions are ongoing, said, "The Czech Republic is not out of the picture." "There are strategic dialogues going on between the United States and the Czech Republic," said Jiří Beneš, a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman. "No concrete proposal has been mentioned yet." In recent days, the Obama administration's altered missile-defense plans have begun to take shape as Romanian President Traian Basescu...

Romanian President Traian Basescu announced last week that his country would accept an US offer to base medium-range interceptor missiles (the proposed land-based version of the SM3 system) as part of the revamped missile defence plans formulated by the Obama Administration in 2009. "Romania has been officially invited by US President Barack Obama to be part of the [new] missile defence system," Basescu said after a meeting of the country's Supreme Defence Council. He stated that talks between Washington and Bucharest on the issue should start in the near future and any agreement will be submitted to Romanian parliament for...

Romania has agreed to base American anti-missile systems on its territory. These will probably be land based Aegis systems. So far, Aegis has achieved an 83 percent success rate during live test firings. So now everyone wants an Aegis ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) ship for protection. The Aegis system was designed to operate aboard warships (cruisers and destroyers that have been equipped with the special software that enables the AEGIS radar system to detect and track incoming ballistic missiles). However, there is also a land based version that Israel is interested in buying. The development version of AEGIS was land based,...

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Friday signed a new version of its main military strategy document which named NATO expansion as one of the chief threats to the country's security. The document, published on the Kremlin web site, listed first among "chief outside military threats" the fact that NATO is attempting to "globalise its functions in contravention of international law." It also cited attempts to bring "military infrastructure of NATO members closer to Russian borders, including by expanding the bloc." Russia has bristled at moves by former Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO and relations between...

In an unexpected announcement, the president of Romania said Thursday his country would host missile interceptors as part of a new U.S. defense shield. President Traian Basescu said the Supreme Defense Council, Romania's top military and security body, had agreed to such a plan after a request by Washington. "Terrestrial interceptors will be placed on Romania's territory as part of the anti-missile system," Basescu was quoted as saying by Radio Free Europe. "According to the calendar agreed with the American side, the components located on Romania's territory will become operational in 2015." He said the missile defense system would "protect...

The first year of Barack Obama’s presidency was marked by a series of embarrassing and groveling apologies for his country on the world stage. From his apology to the French for America’s supposed “arrogance”, to his massive mea culpa before the Muslim world in Egypt, President Obama succeeded in elevating national humiliation into an art form. In his second year, I would strongly encourage the president to stop apologising for his country, and project more pride in his great nation’s past. The United States, together with Great Britain, have done more to advance the cause of liberty and freedom on...

The December of 1989 marked the end of one of the most extraordinary six months of the century. Over that short period of time all of the communist-run dictatorships in Eastern Europe collapsed as the people of those countries sought freedom. The execution of the Romanian tyrant Nicolae CeauÅŸescu on Christmas Day of that year brought the revolutions to an end with a bang. An ideologically and economically exhausted Soviet Union stood by and did not do what it had done so many times in the past: send in tanks to crush these rebellions. That countryÂ’s Communist Party boss, Mikhail...

On Christmas day 20 years ago, Nicolae Ceausescu – long time dictator of Romania – was, along with his wife Elena, executed by firing squad just days after fleeing Bucharest, while his tyrannical regime unraveled before the eyes of a watching world.  His demise and the surrounding events are etched in the memory of those of us who watched it all unfold via various news reports. The look on the once strong-man’s face as a massive crowd began to boo during a speech on December 21st, was one of the defining moments of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. ...

Lutheran Churches in Eastern Europe have added their voices to those of Lutherans worldwide who are critical of the decisions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to endorse same-sex unions and to allow pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships. The leaders of the Lutheran Churches in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania met Nov. 3-4. The bishops issued a message noting the crisis of faith and fellowship caused by the actions of the ELCA and the Church of Sweden in endorsing same-sex sexual relationships. These churches are all members of the Lutheran World Federation. “At the present time a common witness...

The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think-tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga. The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to...

Nov 10, 2009 — When the Berlin wall fell 20 years ago, Dorothee Hubner first dared to think, “Are we allowed to leave and finally be free?” Her story and that of her parents Gerhard and Gertraude, scientists trapped in East Germany, was told by Andrew Curry, a freelance writer, in Science.[1] Dorothee was 23 years old in 1989. Her parents, also biochemists, “had spent decades struggling to do research in East Germany without compromising their personal ideals with allegiance to the ruling Communist Party.” By not pledging allegiance to the ruling Communist Party, the Hubners faced a life of...

The collapse of communism: Reagan, Thatcher and the pope By Joseph A. Cannon Deseret News Published: Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 12:12 a.m. MST Twenty years ago, my wife, Jan, and I were in what was then called West Berlin for a conference. One pleasant afternoon we walked along the Berlin Wall from the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie. During that time, there were significant rancorous anti-Communist demonstrations in East Germany, primarily in the southern part. A German friend, with typical Prussian hubris, dismissed them. "Nothing will come of this, these are just the ineffective rumblings of a bunch of Bavarians."...

So now the cat is well and truly out of the bag. For years, as the number of immigrants to Britain shot up apparently uncontrollably, the question was how exactly this had happened. Was it through a fit of absent-mindedness or gross incompetence? Or was it not inadvertent at all, but deliberate? The latter explanation seemed just too outrageous. After all, a deliberate policy of mass immigration would have amounted to nothing less than an attempt to change the very make-up of this country without telling the electorate. There could not have been a more grave abuse of the entire...

Some of you may have read my article on cities with the most beautiful women, this however is about the countries with the most beautiful women. It's always possible to find a city with beautiful women in a land of not-so-amazingly beautiful women. These places on the other hand, are entirecountries with beautiful women. 10. Denmark I've been to Denmark many times, & I can say that I've not found anything rotten there to date. And definitely not the women, the women here are as striking as they come. A lot like their Swedish neighbours, the women of Denmark are...

With an ambitious new pipeline planned to run along the bed of the Baltic Sea, the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is driving a political wedge between Eastern and Western Europe. While the Russian-German pipeline offers clear energy benefits to Western Europe, Central and Eastern European leaders fear it could lead to a new era of gas-leveraged Russian domination of the former Soviet bloc. With its gas wealth and eyebrow-raising network of personal ties, Russia has divided members of the European Union that have vowed to act collectively to protect their security. Currently, Russian gas has to be piped through...

A recent report of an ancient textile facility, of sorts, is turning heads.[1] Sifting through the debris on a cave floor in the Republic of Georgia, scientists recently discovered evidence that the early cave dwellers processed textiles in the cave. While searching for ancient pollen grains, they found tiny flax fibers in the dirt. Some of these fibers were woven, some were cut, and some were dyed black, gray, turquoise, or pink. They also discovered evidence that these people were processing fur (for clothing) and animal hides. What is surprising about the find is that this was supposedly happening 30,000...

Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" in the Czech Republic and Poland, the...

I was reading an article from The New York Times and this jumped out at me: Although the White House denied that its decision was made to curry favor with the Kremlin, it took some satisfaction in comments by Russian leaders suggesting more flexibility. Obama advisers pointed to a few specific areas where they have won concessions from other countries. Russia, for example, has agreed to a framework for nuclear arms cuts and gave permission for American troops to fly to Afghanistan through its airspace.(emphasis added) Then I read an article on RFERL that had the following: BISHKEK -- A...

When Barack Obama was running for the White House, he posed as a man with a cool head in a crisis who would display calm resolve in the face of any thuggery from the world's rogue states. The candidate described by his aides as "no drama Obama" would have despised the label of a gambler. Yet his decision to abandon plans for a missile defence shield in central Europe amounts to nothing less than a colossal gamble – and one that history may yet condemn as irresponsible and reckless. Be in no doubt about the stakes: the defensive system that...

OBAMA ABANDONS OUR ALLIES This Morning, In “Move Likely To Cheer Moscow And Roil The Security Debate In Europe,” Obama “Told East European States He Is Backing Away From Plans For An Anti-Missile Shield There.” (Peter Spiegel, "U.S. Shelves Nuclear-Missile Shield," The Wall Street Journal, 9/17/09; Jana Mlcochova and Gabriela Baczynska, "U.S. Backs Away From Missile Shield In Europe," Reuters, 9/17/09) Today Is 70th Anniversary Of Soviet Invasion Of Poland. “For Poland, the timing of the announcement is particularly sensitive. Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland following a pact between Moscow and Nazi Germany,...

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

Senator Inhofe was on Savage show tonight. He said the Star Wars missile defense for Poland and the Czech Republic were also for protection of the United States. Inhofe said there are three stages of an ICBM flight. Launch, midflight and terminal phase.