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(IsraelNN.com) Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza escalated attacks against Israel Sunday and fired Russian-made anti-tank missiles for the first time. The missiles exploded in the fields of Kibbutz Alumim, adjacent to the separation fence, and no injuries or damage was reported. The advanced missiles were of the type usually fired from helicopters, and they carry a larger payload and have a longer range than anti-tank missiles that previously have been used in attacks against Israel.

(An Excerpt From Page 2 Of The Article)...“I should mention another interesting aspect. Modern-day Western arms are produced with special chips which make it impossible to use the weapons against the manufacturing country and its allies. It may mean that Saudi Arabia does not exclude a possible military confrontation with the West. Finally, Saudi Arabia does not perceive Moscow as an enemy. Quite on the contrary – it’s a potential partner,” the expert said...

A Russian military plane crashed into the sea during a training exercise in Russia's Far East region, leaving all 11 crew members missing and presumed dead, officials said on Saturday. The Tupolev Tu-142 plane disappeared from radar as it was coming to the end of a training mission on Friday over the Tatarski Strait that divides Russia's Far East island of Sakhalin from the mainland, the defence ministry said. "Given the conditions under which the catastrophe took place, we can presume that all the crew aboard the Tu-142 were killed," a source in the emergencies ministry told the RIA Novosti...

Jerusalem - In a dramatic announcement, Israeli police said Monday they have arrested the alleged murder of a family of six - two grandparents, two parents, and two young children - who were found brutally stabbed to death in a partially burned-out apartment. The alleged perpetrator carried out the murders - which have been described as 'the worst in Israel's history' - apparently in revenge for being fired from his job as a waiter at the family restaurant in the town of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv, police said as a gag order on the investigation was lifted. Demian...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made an outspoken attack on those seeking to rehabilitate former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Millions of Soviet citizens died under Stalin's rule and Mr Medvedev said it was not possible to justify those who exterminated their own people. He also warned against efforts to falsify history and defend repression.

Historians have long agreed that Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin suffered a series of three strokes that eventually led to his death. But new evidence has been uncovered that appears to show Lenin actually succumbed to the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis. The Soviets made huge attempts to cover up the real reasons for Lenin's erratic behaviour and sudden bouts of rage in the years leading up to his death in 1924...

This is the latest installment art video on my understanding of God and how he plays out in strange and mysterious ways. Humour and pathos are all too frequently missed in religion and I'm trying to make up for it. I say that now but I might change my mind. For the budding theologians, please help me out, for I know not what I have done... Any comments would be appreciated.

At the junctures of Manhattan’s Little Italy, Chinatown and Soho is a tiny jewel box of a chapel that many people would mistake for an Orthodox church.In actuality, St. Michael’s Russian Catholic Chapel is a community very much in union with Rome.Named for one of the three archangels whose feast is celebrated Sept. 29 in the Western Church, St. Michael’s is located in the heart of old New York. The tiny, peaceful church epitomizes the meaning of the word “serene.” The chapel is the home of the Byzantine-rite Community of the Holy Archangel Michael Russian Catholic Church. The Catholic Church...

Russia and Islam are not Separate: Why Russia backs Al-Qaeda By Konstantin Preobrazhensky Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a former Lt. Colonel in the KGB who defected to the United States in 1993, is an intelligence expert and specialist on Japan, about which he has written six books. His newest book Russian-American, A New KGB Asset will be published in late 2007. This article was first published by Gerard Group International, Intel Analyses, 31 August 2007.Americans generally believe that Russia is afraid of Islamic terrorism as much as the U.S.A. They are reminded of the war in Chechnya, the hostage crisis at the...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Russia has opened a $2.2 billion line of credit for Venezuela to purchase weapons including armored vehicles and surface-to-air missiles, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday. Venezuela is buying more arms because it feels threatened by Colombia's decision to give U.S. troops greater access to its military bases, Chavez said. Repeating a frequent theme of his presidency, the socialist leader said the United States would like to invade Venezuela and seize the country's oil fields. He said the bases in Colombia could help the U.S. stage such an attack.

<p>I attended a Town Hall last night, hosted by Anthony "Jerkoff" Weiner. Afterwards, a small group of Patriots decided to stay & discuss ObamaCare & it's implications.</p> <p>In our small circle of new FRiends, were two former citizens of the Soviet Union. They had arrived in America years ago, after The Wall came down (Thanks Ronnie!) and the dissolution of the USSR.</p>

August 11, 2009 MEANWHILE, IN TAJIKISTAN Interfax reports on the recent conviction of five members of the Tablighi Jamaat "for making public calls for a forcible change of the constitutional system of Tajikistan, a crime enshrined by Article 304 of the Tajik Criminal Code." The individuals sentenced were identified as Tajiks Khidoyatullo Alimov, Zielukhak Khakdodov and Saidakram Khakdodov, and two Russian nationals, Nasriddin Murodov and Mahmud Makhmadzhodzhayev. Reuters and Interfax both report on the death of an alleged IMU activist outside of Dushanbe named Lutfullo Tursunov, while RFE/RL casts doubt on that report, instead saying that one Shavkat Yusufov was...

The Real Lord of War A court in Thailand is set to rule on whether to extradite to the US Viktor Bout, a Russian businessman known as the Merchant of Death. But his fate is far from certain. Washington believes that Bout is the biggest gun runner in modern history, helping to fuel wars and armed conflicts around the globe.

More than a year ago, the U.N. dropped the Russian air transport company Vertikal-T from its approved list of vendors after a fatal helicopter crash in Nepal. Yet NATO continued to use helicopters owned by Vertikal-T in Afghanistan. And on July 19, one of those choppers crashed at southern Afghanistan's largest NATO base, killing 16 civilians on board. The crash reflects a little-known reality behind NATO's military push in Afghanistan: It is relying on Russian aviators flying Soviet-design aircraft, who are clocking up lucrative contracts in a country Russian troops left two decades ago. Aviation industry analysts say many of...

This is what appears to anger today's Russian historical establishment: accounts of Red Army crimes on the march to Berlin; assertions by the Baltic countries and others in Eastern Europe that Soviet forces came as occupiers as much as liberators; any suggestion that Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were anything but complete opposites and bitter enemies.

7/28/2009 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFNS) -- Thought not traditional Air Force linguists, two multilingual Airmen bring a unique skill to Manas Air Base. Capt. Jecek Dempnaik and Staff Sgt. Maria Hudgeons, who speak a combined seven languages, reduce communication barriers between Air Force members and coalition forces through written translations and verbal interpretations. They are the ears and eyes to the director of the Transit Center here. When acting in this capacity, they are referred to as the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing coalition coordinators and linguists. Shifting tongues between English, French and Spanish is as easy as breathing...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Russia's economy is withering and Moscow will be forced to make compromises with the West on a range of issues, US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview. Biden told The Wall Street Journal these included national security issues, including loosening Moscow's grip on former Soviet republics and shrinking its vast nuclear arsenal. "All of sudden, did they have an epiphany and say: 'Hey man, we don't want to threaten our neighbors?' No," Biden said. "They can't sustain it." ... The geographical proximity of the emerging nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea is also likely...

14:48 GMT, July 24, 2009 MOSCOW | Based on information of the state-run ABN news agency, RIA Novosti reports that President Hugo Chavez announced Venezuela will at least double the number of tanks in its military and continue strengthening its defense capability. "We are going to buy more tanks to have an armored force at least twice the size of what we have today," Chavez said n national television on Thursday. AMX 30 MBT French T-90

British frontline troops in Afghanistan are so short of helicopters and transport planes that they are being bailed out by the Russians. The Mail on Sunday has established that the Ministry of Defence is using civilian Russian-built Mi-8 and Mi-26 transport helicopters to ferry supplies and soldiers in Afghanistan. The pilots are freelance Russians and Ukrainians. Britain is also hiring massive commercial Russian Antonov aircraft to fly vehicles and heavy equipment from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to Afghanistan.

NOVOROSSIISK, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was shown around the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, at the southern port of Novorossiisk on Tuesday. The president is on a working visit to the Southern Federal District. Commander Capt. 1st Rank Sergei Tronev gave the president a tour of the warship, explaining its basic specifications. The Moskva is a Slava-class missile cruiser designed as a surface strike ship with some anti-air and ASW capability. The ship has sixteen SS-N-12 Sandbox (Bazalt) nuclear-capable supersonic anti-ship missiles, mounted in four pairs on each side. Bazalt

U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian leaders, expected to focus largely on arms control. This is a visit that falls neatly into two parts. First, President Obama will consult individually with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Then he will focus on improving ties with the Russian people. In an interview with the Associated Press prior to his departure, Mr. Obama said he has a lot to discuss with President Medvedev. Among them: efforts to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty - or START - that runs out at the end...

MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti, Ivan Korzun) - Russia is celebrating the Feast of All Saints on June 14, with liturgies in Orthodox churches throughout the country commemorating all known and unknown saints. The feast, also called All Saints' Sunday, is marked on the first Sunday after Pentecost. It became prominent in the ninth century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-911). His wife Theophano was known for her piety, giving alms to the poor and monasteries, caring for widows and orphans, and consoling the sorrowful. After her death Leo built a church, and forbidden from...

The 30-year-old electrician, identified only as Dmitry K, lured victims to his house by posting adverts for computer equipment on the internet. Police in Yekaterinburg, a city in Russia's Urals region, tracked the suspect down after finding the charred body of a law student in a roadside ditch. Dmitry K admitted murdering the student, investigators said, before claiming that he had also killed several other victims as he conducted experiments on an improvised electric chair that he had invented. The suspect, who worked at a local power plant, told detectives he would confess to the other murders if they found...

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2009 "In gaz we trust"? I'd rather change GazTranzitStroyInfo's vision to HangUp Team's infamous - "in fraud we trust". It is somehow weird to what lengths would certain cybercriminals go to create a feeling of legitimacy of their enterprise.

Two Russian tourists paid a very high price for breaking the American law which bans sex with porcupines. Staying in Florida on vacation, two Russians from Saint Petersburg decided to check whether they are able to circumvent such an unusual law or not.

A respected Russian artist was arrested after mixing wine and prescription drugs before allegedly drinking liquid soap and attacking flight attendants on a trans-Atlantic flight. British-based Galina Rusanova is accused of of punching and kicking flight attendants and - at one point - 'snapping like a dog' while trying to bite a crew member's leg.

BISHKEK, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Su-25 Frogfoot close air support aircraft will take part on Saturday in the active phase of the military exercises conducted by Kyrgyzstan's Armed Forces, the Kyrgyz Defense Ministry said. Kyrgyzstan is holding Security-2009 tactical exercises in the south of the country, which involve over 500 servicemen, armored vehicles self-propelled artillery and aircraft. The exercises with live-firing drills are aimed at practicing counterterrorism operations. "A flight of Su-25 attack aircraft from the Kant airbase and Kyrgyz Air Force Mi-24 helicopters will provide aerial fire support during the drills, the ministry said in a statement....

A new dispute erupted between Russia and Nato on Thursday, when Moscow called for Nato military exercises in Georgia next month to be postponed or cancelled. The development came against a backdrop of improving Russian ties with the west, with a separate announcement by Moscow that talks would begin next week on a treaty with the US to reduce strategic nuclear weapons. --snip--

MOSCOW, April 11 (Itar-Tass) - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has consecrated pussy willow branches at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This ceremony is conducted under the Russian tradition on the eve of the great Christian holiday – the Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem and in memory of how people meet Jesus Christ with flowers and palms. In Russia pussy willow trees open first in the spring that is why the people name the holiday Yew Sunday. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was full of braches with white furry catkins and burning candles that believers...

BEIJING, April 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Admiral Vinogradov destroyer arrived on Monday in the Chinese port of Zhanjiang on an official visit that followed a three-month tour of duty in the Gulf of Aden. The destroyer, accompanied by the Boris Butoma tanker, is on its way to its home base in Vladivostok after participating in anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast. The first-ever visit of Russian naval vessels to Zhanjiang will last until April 10, and is to involve a number of cultural and sporting events. The Admiral Vinogradov is an Udaloy class missile destroyer, armed with anti-ship missiles,...

SNIPPET: "The CIA is attempting to recruit more spies by advertising on the internet, radio and television, and by holding meetings with American Muslims to make up a severe shortage of Arabic speakers.... Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, will meet Muslim groups in cities such as Detroit to spearhead personally the new drive to recruit Arabic speakers. He recently lamented the fact that only 13 per cent of CIA officers speak a foreign language, and just 22 per cent come from minorities. "In order to accomplish our vital intelligence mission we want to market our employment opportunities to speakers...

SNIPPET: "Oops, they keep doing it again and again. The web site of the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington D.C (ethiopianembassy.org) has been compromised and is currently iFrame-ed to point to a live exploits serving URL on behalf of Russian cybercriminals, naturally in a multitasking mode since the iFrame used to act as a redirector in several other malware campaigns. Despite that the iFrame domain (1tvv .com/index.php) is already "taken care of", details on the original campaign can still be provided."

This handout from Russian advertising agency Voskhod shows a smiling, cartoonish black man flashing the victory sign in front of the US capital building, along with the Russian slogan: "Everyone's talking about it: dark inside white!" Obama ice cream, anyone? Chocolate-vanilla ice cream is one of several Russian products being marketed using Obama even as critics call the ads racist. (AFP/VOSKHOD-HO/File)

Reporting from Moscow -- Two and a half years ago, a young Orthodox rabbi from New York set down in the port city of Vladivostok, family in tow. Yisroel Silberstein came with a mission, and he expected to stay for good. Out on Russia's rough and tumble eastern frontier, Silberstein set out to revive a Jewish life that, he says, had almost disappeared. He reached out to several thousand local Jews, organizing services, holiday parties and a summer camp where children learned about Judaism and swam in the Sea of Japan.

MOSCOW (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday announced a "large-scale" rearmament and renewal of Russia's nuclear arsenal, accusing NATO of pushing ahead with expansion near Russian borders. Meeting defence chiefs in Moscow, Medvedev said he was determined to implement reforms to streamline Russia's bloated military and stressed Moscow continued to face several security threats needing robust defense capacity. "From 2011, a large-scale rearmament of the army and navy will begin," Medvedev said. He called for a renewal of Russia's nuclear weapons arsenal and added that NATO was pursuing a drive to expand the alliance's physical presence near Russia's borders....

MOSCOW – If you're inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn't mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order. Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership. "There is a high probability that the...

Note: The followint text is a quote: NORAD visually identifies 2 Russian bombers near Northwest Territories February 27, 2008 North American Aerospace Defense Command launched fighter aircraft Feb. 18 and visually identified two Russian TU-95 Bear bomber aircraft approximately 190 kilometers northeast of Tuktoyuktuk, Northwest Territories. This response included two CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada as well as two F-15 Eagle aircraft from the Alaskan NORAD Region. The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace at all times and never entered sovereign Canadian or American airspace. All aircraft involved in the visual identification returned to...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian fighters scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa last week, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said on Friday. The Bear bomber did not enter Canada's Arctic airspace but the two Canadian F-18 fighters had to order the plane to turn back, MacKay told a news conference. Obama spent a few hours in the Canadian

A Russian court on Wednesday upheld the deportation of Chabad's Rabbi Yisroel Silberstein, Rabbi of the Primorye region in Russia's far east. According to the Vladivostok District Court's initial ruling on February 12, Silberstein, an American working in Russia for the last two years, listed "cultural activities," in his visa application, inconsistent with the religious work he was actually carrying out. According to the Federal Migration Service, Silberstein should have listed "religious activities." Silberstein told Lubavitch.com that he would be flying to New York on Wednesday night. In a statement, director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia, Alexander...

Note: Photos included. MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish police Tuesday arrested a Spanish soldier and his Russian girlfriend for allegedly posting videos on the Internet promoting Islamic extremist views and calling for attacks in Spain, a Ministry of Interior statement said.

For decades, space experts have warned of orbits around the planet growing so crowded that two satellites might one day slam into one another. It happened Tuesday. And the whirling fragments could pose a threat to the International Space Station, though officials said the risk was now small. “This is a first, unfortunately,” Nicholas L. Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at NASA. Two communications satellites — one Russian, one American — cracked up. In the aftermath, military radars on the ground tracked large amounts of debris going into higher and lower orbits. “Nothing to this extent” has ever happened...

Go to the link. Just go.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad has been elected the new head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Council, which comprised clergymen, monks and laymen, announced on Tuesday the results of the voting for the post of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia. Kirill has been temporarily in charge of the church since the death in December of Aleksy the Second. Kirill had previously been head of the external church relations department. He also hosted a TV programme popular among Russian believers and viewed on one of Russia’s main television channels. Kirill was an active supporter of the reunification between...

Board of Muftis of the RF has reported that the Friday prayers and pulpits in all mosques of the country will be dedicated to the Palestinians killed during Israeli’s Cast-Lead operation in Gaza.

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media, who are interviewing him twice a day. A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Professor Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire. "There's a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur," says Panarin. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario — for Russia." Prof. Panarin, 50...

MOSCOW – A new law drafted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Cabinet would allow authorities to label any government critic a traitor — a move that leading rights activists condemned Wednesday as a chilling reminder of the times under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The draft extends the definition of treason from breaching Russia's external security to damaging the nation's constitutional order, sovereignty or territorial integrity. ...

Pictures of the new currency that will supposedly replace the US dollar have appeared on the Russian Internet. The United States is reportedly working on the new currency, the amero, which will be common for the USA, Mexico and Canada. The unstable financial situation in the world, the collapsing oil prices and the growing foreign debt of the United States may eventually crush the US dollar as the world’s major currency. Needless to say that the US authorities reject the rumors and promise to keep the dollar afloat. Amero notes have no portraits of US presidents on them and resemble...

HAVANA (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday as Moscow rebuilt ties with an old Cold War ally during a trip to strengthen its political and economic clout in Latin America. The meeting came at the end of Medvedev's tour of the region, which has been seen as an attempt by Russia to taunt Washington in its traditional backyard as well as boost Moscow's trade with the region. "This has been a great visit, a magnificent visit, and now he is going to see Fidel," Cuban President and Fidel's brother, Raul Castro, told...

MOSCOW (AP) — India's navy was supposed to lease the brand-new Russian nuclear submarine that suffered an accident over the weekend which killed 20 people, news reports said Monday. An Indian naval spokesman would not comment Monday on leasing this or any submarine from Russia — but his boss has said previously that India was interested... Full read... http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3kNPOn62KBcB4-4G9VnNlTG2KgwD94C3TMG0

ussia has launched mass production of the Ka-52 strike helicopter nicknamed ‘the Alligator’. Based on the Ka-50 ‘Black Shark”, the new version is designed as a commander’s vehicle and has several features for combat coordination. Ka-52s will be manufactured at the Progress factory in the city of Arsenyevsk in Russia’s Far East. The producer hopes up to 30 Alligators will be completed by 2012 and says the aircraft has great export potential. The series was launched 10 years behind the initial schedule. The Ka-52 made its maiden flight back in 1997, but lack of finance stopped it from production.