Free Republic

Russia and China warned on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Iron Dome for America” missile defense system would destabilize global security and turn outer space into a new arena for armed confrontation. “The recently announced large-scale ‘Golden (Iron) Dome for America’ program is deeply destabilizing,” the two sides said in a joint statement during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow. The U.S. plan “explicitly provides for a significant strengthening of the arsenal for conducting combat operations in space,” it added. -snip- Moscow and Beijing claimed nuclear states must “reject Cold War mentality” and avoid seeking military...

A significant rare earth elements deposit has been found in Kazakhstan's Karagandy, with potential reserves of 20 million tonnes. Further exploration is required. On the eve of the EU-Central Asian Summit in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan announced the discovery of a large deposit of rare earth elements. The find was made in Karagandy, the central region of Kazakhstan. Now dubbed "New Kazakhstan," the deposit is said to have almost 1 million tonnes of cerium, lanthanum, neodymium and yttrium, elements used as components in devices such as smartphones, digital cameras and computer hard disks. “Four prospective areas have been identified within the site...

It may sound like the beginning of a Star Trek plot, but there’s a very real arms race going on in space. And Russia may have just made the first move. According to some startling reports, Russian military satellites have apparently launched unknown objects into Earth’s orbit. Space.com described the trio of Russian satellites as “secretive” objects “whose purpose is unknown.” “The three satellites, designated Kosmos 2581, 2582 and 2583, launched on a Soyuz-2.1V rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome early on Feb. 2,” the outlet reports, adding that the satellites “have displayed interesting behavior.” That behavior includes getting oddly close to...

The upcoming summit in Samarkand will bring together for the first time the leaders of the five Central Asian countries and the European Union. Following years of reform and European assistance, the five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - are embarking on a strategic pivot towards Europe. The EU is seeking reliable partners in the current rapidly changing geopolitical reality. This is for political and also economic reasons, such as trade, investment and energy. On Thursday and Friday, the Uzbek city of Samarkand will host the first-ever high level meeting between the EU and the...

Iran announced Wednesday that it had begun to install a new generation of uranium enrichment centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel at its Natanz facility. The announcement coincided with Wednesday’s talks between Iran and senior UN nuclear inspectors seeking to expand probes into suspected weapons-related tests. It also could add pressure to planned negotiations later this month between Iran and world powers in Kazakhstan. The official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi as saying that Iran began installing the new, more advanced centrifuges at the Natanz site in central Iran about a month ago. He said they would...

WARSAW, March 11 (Reuters) - Polish border guards detained a Ukrainian woman who was sentenced in Kazakhstan to 12 years in prison for participating in an organised criminal group trading in human organs and selling 56 kidneys, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The 35-year-old woman, referred to only as Ksenia P. under Polish privacy laws, was detained at a railway crossing between Poland and Ukraine under an Interpol red notice, Marta Petkowska, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in Przemysl, said in a statement. The prosecutors didn't say why the woman wasn't in prison in Kazakhstan at the time she was...

The archaeologists discovered ancient Sarmatian burial sites in the Atyrau Region, dating back to the fifth century B.C. Excavations at the Karabau-2 mound, located 10 kilometers north of Karabau village, Kyzylkoga district, uncovered nine graves, seven of which remained preserved, reported the regional administration on Jan 27.The graves contained human remains, gold jewelry, weapons, and ceramic vessels. Some were collective burials, leading archaeologists to classify them as "royal tombs."Marat Kasenov, the head of the excavation team, noted that around 1,000 artifacts were found, including 100 gold ornaments decorated with images of leopards, bears, tigers and antelopes. Two rare wooden bowls,...

A new study revealed key insights about Mediterranean language families' origins, including Italo-Celtic and Graeco-Armenian branches of Indo-European. An international team of geneticists and archaeologists conducted this research. They examined how ancient migrations influenced the emergence of linguistic groups that shaped Mediterranean civilizations...They analyzed genetic data from 314 ancient individuals who lived in the Mediterranean 5,200 to 2,100 years ago. The researchers used advanced genome sequencing and strontium isotope analysis. This revealed significant genetic and cultural differences between eastern and western Mediterranean populations.The study pinpoints two key migration patterns that had an impact on the genetic and linguistic roots of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologizes to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, for what the Kremlin said was a “tragic incident” in Russian airspace involving the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25. Putin tells Aliyev that Russian air defense was active when an Azerbaijani Airlines plane tried to land in Grozny before it crashed in a phone call, the Kremlin says. “During this time, Grozny, (the town of) Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and Russian air defense was repelling these attacks,” the Kremlin says Putin told Aliyev, without explicitly acknowledging that...

As harrowing details emerge of the last moments of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432, which crashed on Wednesday in Aktau, the flight crew who did their best to save the passengers until the last moment are being hailed as heroes. -snip- Government sources have told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan. According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea. -snip- Remarkable airmanship...

Azerbaijani government sources have exclusively confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Aktau on Wednesday. According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during drone air activity above Grozny, and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight. Government sources have told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan. According...

Azeri president says apology isn’t enough, in confrontation that shows Moscow’s waning influence over former Soviet territories. Azerbaijan’s president accused Russia of trying to cover up its role in a plane crash that killed 38 people, delivering a harsh condemnation that signaled a reversal of the power dynamics that long saw Moscow hold sway over its former Soviet republics. President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday that Azerbaijan had laid out for the Kremlin the necessary conditions to satisfy the country, demanding that Russia take responsibility for causing the crash, provide compensation for the country and victims’ families, and bring those guilty...

The leader of Azerbaijan directly blamed Russia on Sunday for the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet last week, calling on Moscow to accept responsibility and offer compensation to victims. President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijan’s national broadcaster that a vague apology issued by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a day earlier would not suffice to preserve friendly relations between the two former Soviet states. ...“We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia,” Mr. Aliyev said in the interview, according to a summary published in English by Azerbaijan’s state news...

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to “admit its guilt” for unintentionally shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner, an incident that killed 38 people and injured 29. - snip- “First, the Russian side must apologise to Azerbaijan. Second, it must acknowledge its guilt. Third, those responsible must be punished, brought to criminal responsibility and compensation must be paid to the Azerbaijani state as well as to the injured passengers and crew members. These are our conditions,” he said, adding that the first demand had already been addressed with Putin’s apology. Putin and Aliyev spoke by telephone call again on...

Late tonight a missile from Yemen intercepted by Israeli air defenses... "Don't you think we should release the names of the representatives? I do" That's Republican Congressman Thomas Massie... British Politics the Reform UK Party celebrating a milestone in membership... Israel's Attorney General directing police to open an investigation in Sara Netanyahu the wife of Prime Minister... Israel's El Al airline suspending flights between Tel Aviv and Moscow... A police official in Mozambique says six thousand prisoners were freed in disturbances at prisons in the capital city... At least three killed in a bus crash in Norway... The new government...

Russia reportedly attempted to make the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in to the sea by refusing permission to let it land after a missile attack before jamming its navigation system. A Russian surface-to-air missile struck the flight on Christmas Day, causing the airliner to crash in Kazakhstan - a tragedy which claimed the lives of 38 people. Sources told Euronews that the missile was fired at Flight 8432 amid drone air activity above Grozny, the Chechen capital, citing a preliminary investigation. They said the pilot was blocked from landing at any Russian airports despite making emergency pleas, and was instead...

This is the heartbreaking moment a man sent a last message to his wife seconds before the Azerbaijan Airlines was reportedly shot down before a crash that killed 38. The passenger identified as Subkhon Rakhimov started filming a video for his wife as soon as he realised the plane was losing altitude, telling her that the plane tried to land several times, after which the people on board heard a loud bang. His footage shows oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling and passengers can be heard crying and praying, with damage visible inside the cabin minutes before the plane crashed...

This is the horrific moment a passenger plane hit the ground in a fireball in a Christmas Day crash landing in Kazakhstan. There were 67 passengers and five crew members on board the Azerbaijan airlines fight from Azerbaijan capital Baku to Russian city Grozny. Footage of the crash showed the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising The plane was in flames and broke into several parts on landing in Aktau, in western Kazakhstan. The country's emergency situations ministry said its personnel were putting out a fire at the site. 'At the...

The world’s oldest known rug, the Pazyryk, dates back to the 4th to 3rd centuries BC. Preserved by the cold, icy conditions of the Altai Mountains, it has remained in remarkable condition for over 2,500 years. The rug’s survival is the result of unusual circumstances. In the Bolshoy Ulagan dry valley of Kazakhstan, looters ransacked the tomb of a Scythian nobleman, leaving it uncovered. This allowed cold air to freeze and protect the rug from decay. In 1949, archaeologist Sergei Rudenko uncovered the rug, which is now housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Remarkable craftsmanship and design...

The organization, CSTO, is a Russian-led security alliance that includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan “Radicals from Central Asia have accounted for a notable share of recent Islamic State-inspired or -directed plots and attacks in the United States, Europe, Turkey, and Iran,” Lucas Webber and Riccardo Valle wrote in a Hudson Institute analysis last year. In September 2022, ISKP – which vehemently opposes Russia’s support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria – claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul which left six dead. Despite repeatedly warnings from foreign sources – including the U.S....