Free Republic

<p>Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, on Thursday accused the United States and other Western countries of trying to undermine the ex-Soviet nation and promised to strengthen the Belarusian spy agency.</p> <p>"The United States is strengthening its spy agencies and we know whom they are directed against," Lukashenko said at a meeting with heads of spy agencies from several ex-Soviet nations. "So why don't we strengthen our special services?"</p>

Yangon, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's military government expressed thanks to Russia and China for rallying against the U.N. Security Council's move to formally place the country on its agenda. In a five-page rebuttal, Myanmar said it appreciated China and Russia for having "stood steadfastly on the side of Myanmar." It commended China and Russia as the exceptions that "do not want the U.N. Security Council being misused as a tool in the interest of a big nation." Washington had long called for Myanmar to be formally entered into the council's agenda to investigate its government and domestic policies. The council...

Governments ruling more than half of U.N. member states will be asked this weekend to sign a declaration pledging to work to "transform the present unjust international order" dominated by a "hegemonic" power -- a clear reference to the United States. Adoption of the statement, drafted by Cuba's communist regime, is to be a highlight of this week's summit of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The summit, in Havana, draws together countries ranging from U.S. allies such as Singapore, Pakistan and India, to its harshest critics -- including Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria and Zimbabwe. The grouping was formed during...

September 11, 2000, is a day that is burnt into the memories of every American here and abroad. As we patriots in the USA prepare to remember that tragic day on its fifth anniversary, there is to be a summit hosted by one who no doubt was delighted as the events of that infamous day unfolded. Fidel Castro is to host the 14th Summit of the Non-alignment Movement (NAM) in Havana, Cuba, on 9/11/2006. Among those participating are none other that North Korea and Burma, who are now seeking to re-establish diplomatic ties. In 1983, a bomb went off on...

Zimbabwe has bought six more military aircraft from China as Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe's government boosts its ties with Asian countries after falling out with the West, state media reported today. The latest acquisition is in addition to six planes bought by Zimbabwe from China in 2005. "We will be receiving six aircraft from China sometime this year," Trust Maposa, the defence secretary, was quoted by the Herald newspaper as telling a parliamentary defence committee. Maposa did not specify how much the jets had cost. He said the government was in arrears with three Chinese firms that supplied the jets...

Without so much as a greeting to the nation, Cuba's new ruler showed his intentions by calling up Cuban military-age men in a forced mobilization to "defend the republic." He also imposed a press blackout, kicking Western reporters out of Cuba and sending his secret police to crack down on the country's 10,000 illegal satellite dishes. Seeing war everywhere, his directive declared the TV-signal receptors "U.S. weapons." ... Besides turning satellite dishes into weapons, Raul also turned the Cuban military into a for-profit business, amassing considerable wealth that in Cuba swiftly becomes power. Raul's military machine runs gas stations, tourist...

The KGB lives, and is still participating in Cold War era activities like killing enemies of the state and harassing troublesome diplomats. Really. The Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union is not over, sort of. While the U.S., and its allies, won the Cold War, and the Soviet Union is gone, one part of the Soviet Union, Belarus, remains, well, rather Soviet. Belarus (formerly Belorussia, or "White Russia") was one of the parts of the Soviet Union that became an independent country in 1991. But rather than become a democracy, the Soviet era bureaucrats who...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela will install an advanced air-defense system with anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down approaching enemy warplanes, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday. Chavez, who has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him, said the missiles would help defend the oil-rich country against any "aggression." "We're going to acquire the most modern anti-aircraft defense system," Chavez said during a televised speech in the coastal state of Falcon, where military planes and newly purchased Russian helicopters swooped overhead during a military parade. "We're going to armor Venezuela." He said the air defense system would protect...

Party Session between the" Baath" and "Belarusian Communist" Parties Headed by al-Ahmar and Golubeva in Minsk Assertion on the cooperation development On 17. 5. 2006 Assistant Secretary General of the Baath Arab Socialist Party Abdullah al-Ahmar held party session with a delegation from the Belarusian Communist Party headed by the party's First Secretary Tatiana Golubeva joint relations between the two parties within the framework of the cooperation. Talks during the meeting dealt with cooperation ties between the two countries and with each party's role in developing the bilateral relations connecting Syria and Belarus. The two parties criticized polices followed by...

Mr Chavez said he wanted to conclude "a unity pact" in Minsk Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus "as a model social state" like the one he and his government are building. During a visit to Belarus, he called for joint efforts to counter what he described as "hegemonic" capitalism. Mr Chavez later met Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights. Mr Chavez is on a world tour, partly to win support for a Venezuelan seat on the UN Security Council. From Belarus, he will travel to Russia, Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali....

Set against the backdrop of decolonization and an international environment split between Cold War superpowers, both weak and newly independent states formed a bloc that became known as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). While essentially contradictory from its inception, it was not until the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the Warsaw Pact that NAM became largely irrelevant in a seemingly tranquil and unipolar world. However, contemporary attempts to challenge America's global leadership have caused the organization to drastically improve its standing. Between the 27th and 30th of May, the foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned countries met in Putrajaya, Malaysia. A 60-page...

When a mutual friend complained to Abel Prieto, the Cuban culture minister, about the beating administered by a mob to Martha Beatriz Roque, an infirm 60-year-old economist, he lowered his head and begged out of the question, saying that those were ''Fidel's doings.'' He was ashamed that such a cowardly act could be committed. He would have liked to prevent it, but the matter was out of his hands. All he could do was to resign from government, but he didn't have the nerve to do it.He was right. Except for international pressure, nothing and nobody in Cuba can stop...

Our correspondent reports from the Thai border on the plight of the Karen hill tribes fleeing the Burmese army WE CROSSED the Thai border into Burma at the river port of Mae Sam Laeb, posing as missionaries. We then cruised for an hour up the Salween river in a long-tail boat with Thailand’s flag prominently displayed to deter Burmese snipers. Finally we scrambled up a muddy path through the jungle to reach a camp that was called E Tu Hta. There we found 700 refugees — men, women and children — living in a makeshift village of bamboo huts that...

n Friday at 8 a.m. the first train with S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems has arrived in Minsk from Russia, Belarusian defense minister Leonid Maltsev said. As said by him, “in 2006 the question of delivery would be closed, and systems will be deployed in Belarus”. The mobile multi-channel anti-aircraft missile system S-300 has been created by the concern “Almaz-Antei”. It is aimed for defense of military and industrial objects from massive attacks of aerial threats and for antiaircraft defense lines creation. It was developed as a long-range system to defend strategic targets against both conventional aircraft and cruise missiles. As...

The United States has strongly condemned the Myanmar military's offensive against ethnic minority groups, believed to be the biggest crackdown in a decade. Up to 11,000 people have been driven from their homes in eastern Myanmar, where some 2,700 villages have been destroyed by the ruling junta, according to non-governmental groups which also reported cases of "torture and killings." "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Burmese regime's actions against civilians and ethnic minorities within Burma," US State Department spokeswoman Julie Reside said on Friday, using tough diplomatic language. "The military campaign is another indication of the repressive nature...

President Robert Mugabe has ploughed an estimated US$500m into the purchase of 10 new fighter jets and military vehicles from Russia, Zimdaily can reveal. The government's acquisition of the military hardware has been blasted by the opposition MDC which charges that the purchase of military equipment had by-passed the State Procurement Board. The MDC has already queried the defence budget - the biggest in the current financial year - which it says is unjustifiable for a country that is not at war. Due to sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe's regime, Zimbabwe's current fleet of European-made fighter jets has been...

Russia Delivers Missiles to Belarus By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 22, 12:52 AM ET MINSK, Belarus - Russia began delivering advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Belarus on Friday, the Belarusian defense minister said. Russia and Belarus signed an agreement last year on the delivery of the latest and most advanced version of Russia's S-300SP surface-to-air missile system, capable of shooting down targets some 90 miles away. Belarusian Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev denied a report in the British defense journal Jane's Intelligence Digest that Belarus agreed to transfer the S-300SP missiles to Iran to defend against any possible U.S....

Troops in Burma have stepped up a military offensive against the Karen rebel group in the east of the country. Andrew Harding says the situation has been complicated by the military government's relocation of the capital from Rangoon to Pyinmana and that civilians are being caught in the middle. The soldiers arrived at Bukee village at around ten in the morning. They said little, but started to work quickly and methodically. First they began shooting the animals - and five of the villagers. Then they set about burning down the houses - clustered on a wooded hillside. They paid particular...

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday accused the West of hypocrisy for condemning Iran's nuclear programme and described the U.S-led military campaign in Iraq as "genocide". Mugabe, himself at odds with the West over his forcible redistribution of white-owned farms and allegations of human rights abuse, said only those countries without nuclear weapons could sit in judgement over Iran. Speaking to visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Mugabe said: "There are those who are accusing you of what you do not have ... also accusing you of an intention which perhaps you do not have of wanting...

According to the Central Intelligence Agency, China is the world’s second largest economy.[1] Sec­retary of State Condoleezza Rice has observed that China is becoming a “military superpower,”[2] and Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has testified before Congress that China “may become a peer competitor to the United States” in the Asia–Pacific region.[3] By itself, the rise of a new power in Asia need not be alarming, but a new superpower that works against the interests of freedom, free trade, and glo­bal stability is now becoming a reality. On the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit, it is time...