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ORENBURG, September 25 (Itar-Tass) - The perpetrators of a series of recent terror strikes in Russia could have been trained in a religious Muslim school in the town of Buguruslan, the northwest of the Orenburg region, a source at the press service of the Federal Security Service department for the Orenburg region told Itar-Tass on Friday. There is information that some graduates of the Buguruslan Muslim religious school took part in the preparation and perpetration of the terrorist acts in Moscow and the Moscow region as well as the attacks in Nazran and complicity to recruiting militants for illegal armed...

HOUSTON Unlike many candidates, David Van Os, a Democrat running for the Texas Supreme Court, doesn't hesitate to bluntly criticize the right wing. He spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of about 150 at a rally Aug. 26 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Van Os said that the 'thievery and criminality' that is 'running America today and is trying to run the rest of the world' originated in Texas and, therefore, 'Texans have the greatest obligation to confront' the right-wing assault. He argues that the Republican acquisition of power started with the judicial branch in Texas and has developed into a...

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Suspected communist rebels bombed the American information center in Nepal's capital Friday, damaging parts of the building but causing no injuries, police said. It was the first time the rebels, who oppose U.S. support to the Nepalese government, have directly attacked an American government agency in Nepal. During the attack, which occurred just minutes after the center closed for the weekend, assailants threw two bombs from the parking lot and fled, police said. The explosion damaged parts of the building housing the auditorium and the education counseling section. Soldiers cordoned off the area and searched the area....

Russian official sour about location of US bases in Bulgaria SOFIA (bnn)? The Chairman of Russia's parliament upper house said Wednesday his country "was not delighted" by prospects for the United States to locate military bases in Bulgaria. "We believe that our partners in the anti-terrorist coalition, the United States and Britain, will inform us about their plans," Federation Council Speaker Sergey Mironov said after talks with Bulgarian Parliament Chairman Ognyan Gerdzhikov. Mironov expressed hope that possible U.S. military posture in Bulgaria would be tailored to counter terrorist threats and "would not get out of proportion." The United States has...

Two French burglars who broke into a house were scared off when they came across the body of the owner - who died years earlier. The noise of the burglars breaking into the Paris apartment woke a neighbour, who went to investigate. She saw the two men running off and went inside the apartment to find the body of the 70-year-old owner. The woman called police, who confirmed the man had died of natural causes - about four years ago. Neighbours say they hadn't noticed the man had not been seen for so long because he was very quiet and...

Bulgaria is so enthusiastic about its impending entry into Nato that it has set up a TV channel to inform the country about the delights of the organisation. The military-sponsored TV channel promises "compulsive viewing" and will tell citizens how membership will change their lives and how they should behave once the country has joined Nato. In addition the channel will include programmes "honouring the heroism and the sublime of the Bulgarian army and its patriotism", the defence ministry says. Austrian press agency apa reports that the channel had originally been planned for Bulgarian soldiers in and outside the country,...

Young couples in a Bulgarian town are reportedly hiring cameramen to record their big day - including the wedding night. According to Pravda, the latest fashion in Plovdiv is for the wedding day video to include their consummation. Representatives of a Bulgarian wedding agency says three couples had already ordered the blue videos. Pravda reports: "When the first couple ordered such an unusual filming, the agency thought that it was a joke. "However, the young people were quite persistent about their request. After their wedding was over, a cameraman followed them in a tour around several night clubs, which ended...

For most Filipinos, getting a US visa has always been a tricky and tortuous affair. Some would even call it an exercise in masochism. You go through all the trouble preparing tons of documents, pay the US Embassy a hefty and non-refundable $100, and spend a good part of your day waiting in line so that you’d eventually have the privilege of being humiliated by an American consul when it’s your turn to be interviewed at the visa section. If you were a decent person who just wants to visit the United States (and not live there), you’d have to...

MOSCOW - The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said Monday it had cut hundreds of dollars from the price of visas for Russian students seeking to visit the United States, following last month's summit between the two nations' presidents in which they pledged to boost personal contacts between the countries. A student visa that used to cost dlrs 495 is now dlrs 65, Consul General James Warlick said at a news conference. The change took effect Saturday. "On both sides, we are moving away from Cold War consular practices," Warlick said. "We do want to have more people-to-people contacts between the...

Austrian populist Jörg Haider's plans to build a right-wing pan- European club could attract some surprising supporters, says Kate Connolly Just as Austria's Jörg Haider thought his star was being overshadowed by the recent success of other far-right politicians in Europe, he has cunningly come up with a plan that could eclipse them all. The success of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in France's elections prompted the far-rightist to unveil his plans to establish a pan-European anti-Europe platform. Several European elections later, his ideas have developed considerably. In a recent interview with Italy's conservative daily Corriere della Sera, he announced...

Space travel is still so foreign to us that myths abound. LIN SAMPSON pricks some bubbles I was at school in England when men first walked on the moon in 1969 and the Bishop of Winchester asked our class to his house to watch it on a black and white television set. We seemed sadly unprepared because one of my classmates said: "I do hope the moon is full." Sitting in that sombre, old-fashioned room, eating egg sandwiches, space seemed sexless and dull. Our walls were decorated with pictures of the Beatles, not of Neil Armstrong, and space was so...

Northfield Center Township The day before sheriff's detectives raided the KD Daycare Center and found pornography, a loaded gun, a knife and a bull whip, one scared little boy was pulled away from his school-day routine and reluctantly told his story. The boy wouldn't smile or make eye contact with the detectives. He held his arms close to his body and complained that they had interrupted his recess time. Then the third-grader described a secret club that he and other boys at the center belonged to, headed by KD operator David L. Corsi, 54. The boy's description of child care...

ISLAMABAD: The US Department of State has revised the schedule of fees for consular services, said a press release Friday. The new schedule will be effective from June 1 at which time fees for consular services, excepting passport services, provided by the Department of State and US embassies and consulates abroad will change. The non-immigrant visa application fee will increase to dollars 65 (Rs.3,770) from 45. Immigrant visa fees will also increase to dollars 335 from dollars 325. It was said that adjustments have also been made to fees of services for American citizens overseas.

More than 250 suspects are being held in Cuba A sixth Briton is being held by the US at Camp X-Ray, the Foreign Office has confirmed. Martin Mubanga was arrested in Zambia and then transferred to the maximum security base at Guantanamo Base in Cuba. The 29-year-old, who has dual British-Zambian nationality, is believed to be from north London. Briton Feroz Abbasi is also being held Mr Mubanga was understood to have had fled to Zambia after fighting in Afghanistan alongside al-Qaeda and the Taleban, according to The Sunday Times. It is thought Mr Mubanga was held by the Zambian...

<p>MAKING HAY OF HAYGOOD: Like so many rides on the roller coaster we call San Francisco City Hall, the up-and-down flap over the recent dismissal of elections chief Tammy Haygood comes down to power.</p> <p>Whites still have most of it. Gays and other growing minorities are getting more of it every day.</p>

<p>AGENCY: Immigration and Naturalization Service, Justice.</p> <p>ACTION: Proposed rule.</p> <p>SUMMARY: The Immigration and Naturalization Service (Service) is proposing to amend its regulations by eliminating the minimum admission period of B-2 visitors for pleasure, reducing the maximum admission period of B-1 and B-2 visitors from 1 year to 6 months, and establishing greater control over a B visitor's ability to extend status or to change status to that of a nonimmigrant student. These changes will enhance the Service's ability to support the national security needs of the United States. These regulatory modifications are within the Service's authority under sections 214(a) and 248 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Act) and will help lessen the probability that alien visitors will establish permanent ties in the United States and thus remain in the country illegally.</p>

Amnesty! That’s a kind of magic word to Barbadians and other West Indians who live and work in the United States illegally. Although there isn’t an accurate count of the “undocumented,” they run into the tens of thousands, if not more. So, when a United States congressman from New York spoke to the Weekend Nation about a bill he introduced recently in the House of Representatives in Washington calling for amnesty for West Indians, what he had to say struck an important note with the region. “I certainly believe amnesty should be granted to people from the Caribbean who have...

NEW DELHI: Close ties bind India and the United States. There are about two million people of Indian origin in America. They are US citizens, participants in American commerce, students at university or visitors. It is because of this constant interchange that there has been keen interest in the proposed new visa regulations by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Despite much coverage in the media, some misconceptions about the INS proposals exist. I hope I can put many people’s minds at ease: the vast majority of visitors from India to the US will experience no disruption to their...

While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. — Eugene V. Debs, 1913 When I was 16 years old, I was on the Berkeley City Council’s “Peace and Justice Commission.” This was before I knew that most cities in America didn't have peace and justice commissions, much less ones with “youth representatives.” This was during the first intifada in Palestine and we were voting on whether Berkeley should become a sister city with a city in...

An earthquake strikes. A government collapses. A terrorist threat emerges. Relatives try to inform you that a family member is dying. Or you just lose your passport. If you happen to be resident outside your country, you might make your life easier in any of these situations if you take one relatively painless preventive measure: register with your embassy. No major country makes this an obligation, nor could any government conceivably enforce such a requirement on roving, untrackable and often large populations - as many as 6 million Americans may live abroad. Not all countries actively encourage their expatriate citizens...