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SNIPPET: "Quebec provincial police have arrested four people in connection with an alleged fraud ring that appears to have international ties. Officers with la Sûreté du Québec carried out a handful of search warrants in and around Montreal Wednesday morning. Police said they have seized almost $50 million in assets. While no biker gang members were among those arrested, police alleged the fraud ring is tied to the Hells Angels." SNIPPET: "Police say Wednesday's arrests are also tied to a money-laundering plan. However, in this case, police allege the money being laundered was subsequently lent to companies and individuals based...

Arms Deal: President Obama signs away U.S. nuclear security and gives the Russians a veto over whether we can defend ourselves. Our nuclear umbrella is in tatters as another piece of paper proclaims peace in our time. Completing a process of disarmament and appeasement that manifested itself in the dismantling and defunding of U.S. military power that began with his inauguration, President Obama signed a new strategic arms limitation treaty with a grinning and very happy Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday in the Czech capital. How fitting this document was signed in Prague, which isn't far from Munich where...

On Tuesday, the Obama admin istration released its new nu clear strategy; today, the prez will ink a new nuke treaty with the Russians in Prague. Next week, he'll host an all-world atomic affair in Washington. It's a veritable "no-nukes-palooza." Problem is, not all nuclear cutbacks are wise. Next week's DC summit makes sense: It's focused on securing nuclear materials -- making it harder, for example, for terrorists to acquire an A-bomb. But the other two "events" raise serious concerns. The new nuclear strategy aims to create a smaller nuclear force. But that force is already aging, and thus growing...

Note: The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-release-nuclear-posture-review Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 06, 2010 Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of Nuclear Posture Review One year ago yesterday in Prague, I outlined a comprehensive agenda to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them. I look forward to advancing this agenda in Prague this week when I sign the new START Treaty with President Medvedev, committing the United States and Russia to...

My wife and I, and our two teenagers are off on a well-earned vacation to Mittersfeld (Black Forest/Bavaria) and Salsberg on Christmas Day thru New Years. I'd appreciate any feedback from my second family as to what to see (or don't bother to see), as well as some out of the way places to visit.

Biden Blasts Back: 'Who Cares' About Cheney? Vice president calls his predecessor "absolutely wrong" on the question of whether the new administration was "dithering" in setting a fresh course for the war. The Washington Times FOXNews.com Saturday, October 24, 2009 PRAGUE - Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. waved off recent attacks from Dick Cheney about President Obama's handling of Afghanistan with a "Who cares?" and called his predecessor "absolutely wrong" on the question of whether the new administration was "dithering" in setting a fresh course for the war. "I think that is absolutely wrong," the vice president said of...

Pope Benedict XVI leads an ecumenic meeting in Prague September 27, 2009 PRAGUE, Czech Republic, SEPT. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Gospel is not an ideology, but rather, illuminates the dignity of the human person generation after generation, says Benedict XVI.The Pope affirmed this today in an ecumenical meeting held in the context of his three-day apostolic journey to the Czech Republic. He returns to Rome on Monday.The Holy Father told the representatives of Christian religions that "as Europe listens to the story of Christianity, she hears her own.""Her notions of justice, freedom and social responsibility, together with the cultural and...

Pope Benedict XVI Prague, Czech Republic, Sep 25, 2009 / 05:39 am (CNA).- Just days ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Czech Republic, Vatican analyst John Allen is saying in an essay for the Prague Post that the papacy’s social and political influence is one of the most unique and far-reaching in the world today. From the fall of communism to Western-Muslim relations to the AIDS crisis, he says, the Pope is a key international player.Describing the Catholic Church in “purely empirical, sociological terms,” Allen likens the Catholic Church to a “lone superpower” whose involvement is necessary...

The Pope and the Child Jesus in Prague September 22nd, 2009 by ACN-USA News Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming trip to the Czech Republic will include a special visit to the image of the Holy Child Jesus in Prague — one of the most venerated and visited religious images in the country – on September 26, 2009.The Prior of the Carmelite monastery of the Holy Infant of Prague, Father Petr Sleich, spoke last week to international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about the Pope’s forthcoming visit to the Czech Republic. Its aim, he said, is to...

Czech archaeologists have uncovered a unique 1000-year-old mark engraved into an oak tree the remains of which were found near Celakovice in Prague, which is probably the oldest preserved sign of this kind in the world. According to a report from the Czech News Agency, the real meaning of the 10-cm star-shaped mark on the oak trunk is not certain. Experts say it may have marked the territory or serve some iconic purposes. This find is rare as so old engraved signs were not previously mapped and they are not systematically searched for either, archaeologist Jana Marikova of the Academy...

AN understaffed Prague clinic has signed up nurses by offering boob jobs, liposuction and tummy tucks as a bonus. Nurses, doctors and secretaries who sign up with the small private clinic for three years can choose their free plastic surgery. "It has been a success," Jiri Schweitzer, a manager at the Iscare clinic, said, adding the establishment was now fully staffed and had to reject dozens of beauty-hunting job applicants. Petra Kalivodova, a 31-year-old nurse who has been working at the clinic for four years, has had a breast implants - the most popular choice among nurses - so she...

PRAGUE — They say the Golem, a Jewish giant with glowing eyes and supernatural powers, is lurking once again in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue here. The Golem, according to Czech legend, was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague’s 16th-century ghetto from persecution, and is said to be called forth in times of crisis. True to form, he is once again experiencing a revival and, in this commercial age, has spawned a one-monster industry. There are Golem hotels; Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines (made in China); a recent musical starring a...

Just don't mention the golem. According to legend, Prague's most famous rabbi, the 16th-century Judah Loew ben Bezalel, magically made a mute clay being who alternately protected and rampaged through the Prague ghetto where Jews were required to live. But ask Czech Jews about the golem and you most likely will be met with eye rolling and heavy sighs, especially if you’re asking about plans for the upcoming 400th anniversary of the death of Loew (pronounced LEV). “Everyone hates the golem,” said Peter Gyori, a Prague Jew. “Loew was one of Europe's most famous teachers and, sadly, people come here...

PRAGUE -- Michelle Obama's whirlwind tour of Prague turned into a love affair with a city and its people. "I'll be back," she said. Crowds of young Czechs and tourists chanting "Obama! Obama!" waved at the first lady as she walked the cobblestones of the Jewish Quarter. She waved right back, and there were no angry faces as far as the eye could see. "She was totally with them," said Michaela Sidenberg, her guide.

PRAGUE (AFP) – Barack Obama flew into Prague on Saturday for a summit with EU leaders, making his first venture behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain on the third leg of his maiden European tour as US president. Obama will be using his visit to the Czech Republic -- current holder of the rotating EU presidency -- to deliver a keynote speech on nuclear proliferation, as the world awaits a threatened North Korean missile launch. Together with Poland, the Czech Republic is to host elements of a nuclear missile defence shield, initiated by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, that Russia regards...

The construction of the road tunnel Blanka that is underway in Prague's Střešovice has been under the supervision of archaeologists. The tunnel, which is to be part of the planned Prague ringroad and connect Malovanka with Pelc-Tyrolka, is being built on a site that used to be inhabited in prehistoric times, the news site iDnes.cz reported on Thursday. "Trained colleagues are watching the excavator digging earth, and they halt the work whenever they notice something that does not belong there," archaeologist Kateřina Tomková told iDnes.cz Archeologists expect the site, where a meandering river used to flow some 300,000 years ago,...

A Renaissance mystery is beginning to unravel in Prague. A team of experts from Denmark have asked the authorities for permission to open and explore the grave of the Danish-born astronomer Tycho Brahe who died in Prague in 1601. They are hoping to learn more about one of the most famous scholars of the time – and perhaps to throw more light on his mysterious death. Tycho Brahe story of alchemists and assassins might soon be added to the annals of one of the most glorious eras in the history of Prague. A team of experts from Denmark would like...

Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus' meeting with leaders of the European Parliament Friday ended in a rift, a transcript of the meeting released by his office showed. The president, who is an outspoken critic of the European Union and its reform treaty, was angered by questions from Daniel Cohn- Bendit, the head of the European Greens. Klaus' aide told reporters after the meeting that the president considers Cohn-Bendit's behaviour 'a big provocation.' According to the transcript, Cohn-Bendit first presented Klaus with an EU flag, which the president has so far refused to hang at his seat, Prague Castle. The...

Russians March Into Czechoslovakia - go to link, the article desired may be dragged onto the page to see it all, pretty good.