Free Republic

ANXIOUS investors had hoped that the worst was over in the suddenly skittish stockmarkets. No such luck. On Tuesday March 13th the three big American indices gave back nearly all the ground they had regained since bottoming on March 5th. The Dow, the NASDAQ and the S&P each fell by about 2%. On Wednesday markets in Asia and Europe followed them down. Lacklustre American retail spending figures in February added to the gloom. Some fear that a slowing housing market may finally mean a contraction in consumer spending. But in the main, the losses stemmed from more direct worries...

Nikoloz Rurua, the deputy chairman of the Georgian parliament's Committee for Defense and Security, says helicopters that attacked the Kodori Gorge came from Russian territory, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reported. Georgia says Russian helicopters fired on the gorge on March 11, which Russia denies. A multinational commission, including the United Nations, the Georgian government, Abkhazia's separatist government, and peacekeepers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, is investigating the incident. "Three helicopters, preliminarily identified as Mi-24 attack gunships, flew [into the Kodori Gorge] from Russian territory or, to be precise, from the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria," Rurua said. "They made a circle above...

Just a few years ago, separatists and power-hungry oligarchs threatened Russia's very existence. But thanks to the security services, law enforcement agencies and military, order has been restored and Russia has been granted a new lease on life. That was President Vladimir Putin's message Friday at a Kremlin reception for newly promoted officers. In his comments, the president also pledged to lavish future funds on the so-called power agencies. "All of this demands constant work to improve our country's military organization, including maintaining our nuclear deterrent forces at a high level of combat readiness," Putin said. Putin repeated what senior...

Gunmen in south-east Iran have killed two policemen and kidnapped four others, taking them to neighbouring Pakistan, Iranian officials say. The country's national police chief, Gen Ahmadi Moghaddam, blamed "bandits" for the attack, which occurred in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan. He gave no further details of the incident. Pakistani officials say they have no information on the kidnapping. Drug smugglers and militants are known to operate in the area. The Iranian government has repeatedly urged Pakistan to help improve security in the border area. Two weeks ago suspected militants killed 11 Iranian revolutionary guards in a bomb attack in...

The top U.S. intelligence official says Russia has taken a step backward in its democratic progress. Mike McConnell (in photo), who became U.S. Director of National Intelligence last week, told a Senate committee on February 27 that Moscow could be heading toward a controlled succession to President Vladimir Putin in 2008. He said there were "more arrangements to control the process and the populace and the parties to the point of picking the next leader of Russia." Putin's second term expires next year, and he is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term as president.

Quetta: Suspected Baloch militants blew up a gas pipeline near Quetta on Tuesday, cutting supplies to a power plant and several areas, a gas company official said. Gas supplies were cut to four districts near Quetta and a 95 MW city power plant. Supplies might be restored to some areas within 24 hours, Nawaz said. No one was hurt in the early morning blast in the outskirts of Quetta. “They planted explosives under an 18-inch pipeline that blew out a 4-foot piece of the pipe,” said Sheikh Nawaz, general manager of Sui Southern Gas Company. agencies

A Russian general has threatened a tough response if the United States goes ahead with a plan to site a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic. "If the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic take such a decision, the strategic missile force will be able to aim at these installations," said the force's head, General Nikolai Solovtsov, on Monday. Russia, he said, could easily restart production of medium-range missiles if the decision were taken to withdraw from a Cold War-era treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), signed by Moscow and Washington in 1987. "If...

February 18, 2007 -- Russian officials took steps to prevent the spread of bird flu as they investigated new reports of birds dying near Moscow. AP cited Aleksei Alekseyenko, spokesman for the federal agricultural oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor, as saying that four separate incidents of birds dying could be traced to single market located outside the city. Health workers leaving a quarantine zone in the village of Babenki, 50 kilometers from Moscow (epa) The market in question has been closed as investigators try to determine where it obtained the birds it was selling. Deadly Strain The news came a day after...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has carried out a radical government reshuffle a year before he is due to step down in a surprise move aimed at safeguarding his political legacy. Judging by Mr Putin's appointments, post-Putin Russia will look very much like it does today and be run by a man with a similar background and worldview. The reshuffle, that took Russia's political élite by surprise, promoted Sergei Ivanov, the Defence Minister, a man whose CV looks remarkably similar to Mr Putin's, to the influential position of First Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Ivanov, a former KGB spy, is well...

Thank you, Vladimir Putin. Thank you for confirming that the Cold War is very much alive and that your nation is responsible for keeping it so. After all, it is far better for us to know absolutely who you are and what your intentions continue to be. Thank you for confirming that we can trust the Soviets to be Soviets and that nothing has changed in your country except that you found it convenient after the Berlin Wall fell to act "American." Your words changed: "Comrade" became "citizen," "Premier" became "President." Western styles found you clothed in sharp suits...

American pressure at this time will not be taken lightly by Iranian regime The fact that Iran stands today able to challenge or even defy the United States in every sphere of American influence in the Middle East attests to the dismal failure of the Bush administration’s policy toward it during the last six years. Feeling emboldened and unrestrained, Tehran may, however, miscalculate the consequences of its own actions, which could precipitate a catastrophic regional war. The Bush administration has less than a year to rein in Iran’s reckless behavior if it hopes to prevent such an ominous outcome and...

Attacks by unknown assailants have killed three policemen in Daghestan. Gunmen fatally shot a police investigator in his car outside his home in Daghestan's capital, Makhachkala, on February 3. Local authorities say two bombs then exploded as a police convoy headed to the site, killing two police officers. The blast also damaged regional Interior Minister Adilgerey Magomedtagirov's car, but the minister was unhurt. Daghestan has long been afflicted with violence by criminals and militants.

Russia maintains listening posts along the Syrian border with Israel which it uses to follow IDF movements in the Golan Heights, it was revealed Thursday night. According to a report on Channel 2, the posts are manned by Russian military officers who pass on information to Hizbullah in Lebanon. Israel, The Jerusalem Post learned, has known about the posts for over a decade since they were established. Russia's involvement in the Iranian nuclear program, as well as various state-of-the-art arms sales it has periodically made to both Syria and Iran, has caused some friction over the last few years...

Nigerian gunmen have abducted two or three Chinese oil workers in the southern delta state of Bayelsa, police said on Thursday. Following is a chronology of some major attacks on the Nigerian oil industry in the last three months.Oct. 21, 2006 - Seven foreign oil workers held hostage since Oct. 3 are released. The men, four Britons, one Romanian, one Malaysian and an Indonesian, were kidnapped in a raid on a compound for expatriate contractors working for Exxon Mobil. -- Nov. 7 - An American and a Briton, working for Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and kidnapped from a survey ship...

MOSCOW -- Russia said yesterday it had delivered new anti aircraft missile systems to Iran and would consider more requests from Tehran for defensive weapons, immediately drawing criticism from the United States. The United States accuses Iran of seeking nuclear arms and undermining security in the Middle East. The United Nations has banned sensitive nuclear trade with Iran but there are no sanctions on conventional weapons. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters in Moscow that Russia had supplied the modern short-range anti aircraft systems TOR-M1.

Rising temperatures may pose a challenge to the long-term food security of China, the world's most populous country, according to a recent official report evaluating climate change. China's output of major crops, including rice, wheat and corn, could fall by up to 37 per cent in the second half of this century if no effective measures are taken to curb greenhouse gases in the coming 20 to 50 years, according to the report. Global warming will negatively impact China's ecological, social and economic systems, especially farming, animal husbandry and water supply, with some damage irreversible, said the report. The...

Many remember Leonid Brezhnev as a mumbling dotard with dark bushy eyebrows and a cuirass of medals pinned on his broad chest. But more Russians today would rather live under Brezhnev, who would have turned 100 on Tuesday, than any other Soviet or post-Soviet leader, with the exception of President Vladimir Putin. "Brezhnev himself lived well, and he allowed others to live," said Marina Pukhalskaya, a Moscow pensioner who received free higher education, a relatively prestigious job as a civil engineer and, eventually, a free apartment during an 18-year rule that some quipped would never end. People who knew...

Iran today criticized as unacceptable a decision by Europe's second-highest court to end a freeze on assets of the main Iranian opposition group abroad. Iran said the decision risks "resuscitating terrorism." The Court of First Instance on December 12 ordered the European Union to cancel a decision from May 2002 to freeze the funds of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MEK). The EU classifies the MEK as a terrorist group, but the MEK argues that it should be removed. A court spokesperson has said the move could result in its removal from the EU terror list. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad...

Russia's G8 envoy says speculation surrounding the death of Alexander Litvinenko has caused 'untold damage' to the regime. The admission comes after the focus of the investigation switched to Germany, with police revealing yesterday that one of the key witnesses to Mr Litvinenko's death, Dimitry Kovtun, was contaminated with polonium-210 in Hamburg. That was several days before he met the former Russian spy in a London hotel bar. The German inquiry is focusing on whether Mr Kovtun was in illegal contact with radioactive materials. Igor Shuvalov told Channel 4 News the death was done by someone who wanted to harm...

Russian President Vladimir Putin received political party leaders in his Novo-Ogarevo residence yesterday. He united them into a pool with which he will cooperate and meet on a regular basis. Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov believes that the president has thus closed the list of parties open to dialogue with him. Russian President Vladimir Putin met with political party leaders yesterday. Many of them did not hope to see the president in person, for they did not overpass the 5% barrier during last parliamentary elections, did not get into the State Duma, and thus were not granted meetings with Putin....