Free Republic

Federal authorities on Wednesday began legal proceedings to strip U.S. citizenship from two Bosnians, including one living in Oregon, for war crimes including executing civilians during that country’s civil war in the 1990s. The move by the U.S. Justice Department comes years after Rasema Handanovic and Edin Dzeko were extradited and later convicted by courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2011. After serving her sentence, Handanovic returned to Beaverton, Oregon, according to a statement from the Justice department, while Dzeko has not yet been released by Bosnian authorities. The department filed denaturalization lawsuits against the pair in federal courts in...

Russia's envoy to the U.N. on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process. 'Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily,' Vitaly Churkin told Kommersant newspaper, referring to an international agreement to cease hostilities sealed in Munich last week. 'Therefore we would like Assad also to respond to this,' he said, adding that the Syrian leader's stance 'is not in accord with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is making.'

A US Embassy in Montenegro has been blasted with a grenade by an unnamed attacker who then blew himself up with a second device, American officials have confirmed. The attack in the capital city of Podgorica happened just before midnight last night. The embassy was closed at the time of the incident. Montenegro's government confirmed an unknown assailant threw the grenade into the embassy compound and then blew himself up with another explosive device. There are no deaths except of the attacker. The New York Times reported a witness saw the man throw the object over the wall at around...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- John McCain's campaign manager reportedly helped arrange the introduction of the Arizona senator to politically connected Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. The Washington Post Friday said the meeting took place in 2006 at a dinner party in Switzerland and was followed up by a similar encounter in Montenegro seven months later. The Post said there was no evidence that McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful, and Deripaska had any further contact, but the newspaper contended the meeting illustrated the obstacles McCain faces in campaigning as a Washington "outsider" despite his long Senate career. The Switzerland meeting was...

German media reports say it is not yet clear if the man, caught with a car full of guns and explosives a week before the attacks, had any ties to the terrorists. A man arrested by German police last week has become the focus of media attention and speculation that he may be an accomplice of the group that carried out the terror attacks in Paris on Friday night. Police in Rosenheim in southern Germany arrested the 51-year-old man on Nov. 5. after stopping him at a routine checkpoint and searching his car, German media reported. Police discovered a cache...

How ridiculous is all this going to get? You can watch it for yourself. It’s 10 seconds of nothingness that you’ll never get back, but at least it’s only 10 seconds. This, yes, this, is what is trending on Facebook at the moment. Trump shoves prime minister. Yeah. They’re really saying that. About this: I feel like an idiot even bothering with the details, but fine, I’ll play. First, look at the faces of both men. Do you see any aggression? Do you see any impatience? Do you see any tension whatsoever between them? Do you see anyone else who’s...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed the U.S. instrument of ratification for Montenegro's accession to NATO, the White House said in a statement. Last month the Senate overwhelmingly backed the expansion of NATO to allow Montenegro to join the alliance, hoping to send a message that the United States will push back against Russian efforts to increase its influence in Europe.

...White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Mr. Tump looks forward to welcoming Montenegro formally into the alliance at a NATO leaders meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on May 25. He said the move is “signaling to other NATO aspirants that the door to membership in the Euro-Atlantic community of nations remains open and that countries in the western Balkans are free to choose their own future and select their own partners without outside interference or intimidation.”

President Donald Trump said in his inaugural address: “We’ve defended other nation’s borders, while refusing to defend our own.” I couldn’t agree more. Today, the question is: Will we add yet another commitment to defend yet another foreign country? For decades, NATO has been an organization where the U.S. disproportionately spends our blood and treasure. The other NATO countries have largely hitched a ride to the U.S. train that subsidizes their defenses and allows them to direct their revenues to domestic pursuits. Adding a country with fewer than 2,000 soldiers to NATO is not in our self-interest. There is no...

Serbia's prime minister pledged on Friday that the Balkan country will never join NATO or any other military alliance as Serbia marked the 18th anniversary of the start of NATO airstrikes that stopped its crackdown in Kosovo. Aleksandar Vucic spoke at a ceremony near a railway bridge in southern Serbia where the Western military alliance's missiles struck a passenger train, killing at least 28 people and injuring dozens. "We will never be part of the alliance which killed our children, nor of any other alliance," Vucic said. "They wanted to destroy and humiliate small Serbia and kill its children."

Montenegro says an investigation has shown that Russian nationalists were behind an alleged coup attempt on election day because of the government's bid to join NATO. Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic said Sunday that the investigation leads to the conclusion that "nationalists from Russia" organized a criminal group that planned to break into Parliament and cause violence in the tiny Balkan country. Some 20 Serbian and Montenegrin citizens, including a former commander of Serbia's special police forces, were arrested in Montenegro during the Oct. 16 election.

Montenegro's chief special prosecutor has said "nationalists from Russia" were behind an attempt to assassinate the PM and carry out a coup. Milivoje Katnic said the plot involved killing pro-Western PM Milo Djukanovic with a professional long-distance sharpshooter. The plotters are accused of planning to break into parliament and bring a pro-Russian government to power.

John McCain has been hammering rival Barack Obama for being little more than a vapid "celebrity" and "elitist." But The Nation has obtained a photo revealing just how star-struck a straight-talking maverick can become when offered the chance to celebrate his birthday aboard a yacht filled with celebrities--even if one of those celebrity types turns out to be an A-list con man. The photograph substantiates reports that in late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by A-list con man Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. In the current edition...

On Friday and Saturday (8-9 July 2016), the leaders of the 28 NATO Allies and many partner nations will meet for a landmark Warsaw Summit. Together, they will take decisions to enhance the Alliance’s security by strengthening its deterrence and defence, and projecting stability beyond its borders. Allies will agree to deploy four robust and multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, on a rotational basis. A multinational framework brigade in Romania will provide a tailored presence in south-eastern Europe. NATO will also take further steps to improve cyber defences, civil preparedness and to defend against ballistic missile attack...

NATO made a formal invitation on Thursday to tiny Montenegro to join the alliance as its 29th member. NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels signed the accession protocol under the eyes of the Montenegrin prime minister, Milo Djukanovic. The membership must be approved by all 28 national governments or parliaments, including the United States Senate. When an informal invitation was made to Montenegro in December, Russia responded angrily. Montenegro has a population of about 600,000 and little military capacity, but in December, Adm. Vladimir Komoyedov, the chairman of the Russian Parliament’s defense committee, said, “They are ready to admit even...

NATO foreign ministers have agreed to invite Montenegro to join the military alliance, swiftly prompting a threat from Russia of unspecified retaliatory measures. "We congratulate Montenegro," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told foreign ministers at the alliance headquarters in Brussels on December 2. Describing the decision as “historic,” he said “every nation has the right to decide its own path, its own security arrangements." Stoltenberg added that the invitation "makes clear NATO keeps its door open" and bolsters "our vision of a Europe whole and at peace." Montenegrin Deputy Prime Minister Igor Luksic called the NATO invitation "a positive signal for...

The 28-nation US-led group agreed to start the entry process at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels this morning, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. The move will be seen as a warning to the Kremlin that its influence in the region is waning, despite a show of strength during last year's annexation of Crimea and the subsequernt bombing campaign in Syria. In retaliation, Russia has warned that Montenegro will be punished for the action.

Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands. Sources close to the ruling Syriza party said the government is determined to keep public services running and pay pensions as funds run critically low. It may be forced to take the unprecedented step of missing a payment to the International Monetary Fund next week.

Russia's Euro 2016 qualifier in Montenegro was abandoned after multiple violent incidents in Podgorica on Friday. Just seconds in, Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev was struck in the back of the head by a flare thrown from the stands at Stadion pod Goricom. While the teams played on, a second incident during the second half led to the abandonment. Roman Shirokov had a penalty saved by Montenegro goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic in the 66th minute. The ball went out for a throw-in, which Dmitri Kombarov went over to take – only to refuse to when he appeared to be struck by an...

Leaving Kosovo: Exodus of young people as frustration soars By Guy De Launey BBC News, Kosovo 22 March 2015 From the section Europe "We are like two million birds in one cage, but we are hoping for a better life" The scene in Mitrovica's 7 Arte Cafe seems convivial enough. Fairy lights twinkle, a mixture of Albanian and English-language hits play over the sound system and the 20-somethings gathered around the tables regularly break into laughter. But the joviality papers over a grim reality for these young people. Kosovo may have unilaterally declared independence from Serbia seven years ago, but...