Free Republic

The Bush administration reiterated Thursday that the missile defense system it plans to build in central Europe is not directed against Russia. The comments follow a reported warning that Moscow might withdraw from a Cold War-era arms reduction agreement if the U.S. plans go forward. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.Officials here say Russia has been consulted at various levels about the U.S. missile-defense plans and intentions, and they say they are puzzled by the repeated caustic comments about the envisaged system from Moscow.The Bush administration announced last month it was opening formal negotiations with Poland and the...

Less than a week after taking office, the Czech Republic's new minority government is embroiled in a major political row with opposition parties over a US project to base missiles on Czech territory. Washington wants to deploy 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Europe to reinforce its defences against the threat of a ballistic missile attack from North Korea or Iran, and currently has its eye on either the Czech Republic or Poland as the favoured home for the new system. The Czech Republic's new right wing Civic Democrat government, which finally took office on September 4 after three...

As the Pentagon scouts Poland and the Czech Republic for possible locations for its planned missile defense shield, locals are proving to be less than enthusiastic about the idea. With its planned new missile defense system, sometimes known as "Son of Star Wars," Washington wants to create a battery of defenses capable of protecting the United States and its allies from oncoming missiles -- nuclear or otherwise. A working version of the defense system does not yet exist and a number of tests have resulted in failure, but Pentagon officials are already scouring Eastern Europe for potential bases for the...

Back in the days of the Hapsburg Empire, there was a town in Bohemia called Budweis. The people in that town were called Budweisers and the town had a brewery which produced beer with the same name -- but different from the American Budweiser. Like many communities in Bohemia during that era, Budweis had people of both Czech and German ancestries, speaking different languages, though many were also bilingual. They got along pretty well and most people there thought of themselves as Budweisers, rather than as Czechs or Germans. But that would later change -- for the worse -- not...

St. John Nepomucene Neumann (1811-1860) HIS FASCINATING LIFE STORY The Bishop of Philadelphia lay crumpled in the snow a few blocks from his new cathedral on Logan Square.  By the time a priest reached him with the holy oils, Bishop Neumann was dead. That was January 5, 1860.  At his own request Bishop Neumann was buried in a basement crypt in Saint Peter's Church where he would be with his Redemptorist confreres. PILGRIMAGES TO BISHOP'S TOMB Almost immediately devout souls were drawn to his grave. They came from far and near.  More than a few were claiming extraordinary miracles of...

Two Czech farmers have come up with an ingenious way to get around European Union regulations which they say are threatening their livelihood. Petr Hajek and Pavel Stepanek from the southern Bohemia region used to make a good living from sales of their goats' cheese, made to an old family recipe. But since the country joined the European Union on 1 May things have become more difficult. The men are unable to meet strict EU standards and so are prevented from selling their cheese for human consumption. "If I wanted to sell goats' cheese to people officially, I would have...