MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian security services have foiled a plot to stage an attack during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi or in the run-up to the Games in the southern Russian city, state-run RIA news agency said on Thursday.
It said the special services had confiscated weapons during raids on May 4 and 5 in the breakaway Abkhazia region of Georgia, the former Soviet republic with which Russia fought a brief war in 2008. An Islamist insurgency is under way in Russia's North Caucasus region close to Sochi.
Rescuers pulled a 5-year-old girl alive from the rubble of a house flattened by a massive avalanche. It killed both her parents and at least seven relatives in a remote mountain village in southern Kosovo.
RESTELICA, Kosovo (AP) -- Rescuers have pulled a 5-year-old girl alive from the rubble of a house flattened by a massive avalanche that killed both her parents and at least seven of her relatives in a remote mountain village in southern Kosovo.
Col. Shemsi Syla, a spokesman for the Kosovo Security Force, said Sunday officers discovered the girl when they heard her voice and cell phone. Her home was buried under 10 meters (33 feet) of snow.
Rescuers cheered and pumped their fists in the air late Saturday as the girl was pulled out alive. A video aired on Klan Kosova TV showed rescuers covering the girl with blankets, before she was rushed to hospital.
Osman Qerreti, an emergency official at the site, told The Associated Press that at least nine members of her family died when the avalanche in the village of Restelica near Kosovo's border with Macedonia and Albania destroyed seven houses, of which only two were inhabited.
Amid subfreezing temperatures Sunday, local villagers baring fierce snowstorms used shovels to dig deep into the snow-covered rubble - all that remained of the one-story brick houses. One more person is believed missing.
"No bigger tragedy has ever struck this region," said local district official Behar Ramadani. "Two brothers with their wives and children have been killed."
The girl, identified as Asmira Reka, was recovering in hospital in the nearby town of Prizren. Doctors said her life was not in danger, but her parents had perished in the avalanche, and she had been buried for more than 10 hours.
NATO peacekeepers, deployed in Kosovo to end the armed conflict between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians in 1999, had been called in to help local authorities in the rescue, but they were unable to land their helicopter due to a fierce blizzard.
Rescuers initially dug out the bodies of a married couple and their 17-year-old son. Six more bodies were discovered during the excavation.
The cold snap in Europe, which began late January, has killed hundreds of people - most of them homeless. Heavy snow has been blanketing the Balkans for more than two weeks, with Restelica and roads in the region blocked for several days.
In neighboring Montenegro, where the government introduced a state of emergency because of the deep freeze, special police forces on Sunday managed to reach about 50 train passengers stranded for two days after tracks were blocked by avalanches.
Police said a 55-year-old passenger had died from a heart attack Saturday night, while the others were sheltering in a nearby tunnel.
The airport in Podgorica remained closed Sunday and the streets were blocked by snow up to 57 centimeters (22 inches) high - the highest since measurements started in the capital in 1949.
Authorities have banned driving in the capital, while many parked cars were damaged after snow-covered trees fell on them.
Police in Bosnia said the roof of a sports center in downtown Sarajevo used for ice skating events in the 1984 Winter Olympics collapsed Sunday under the weight of snow. No injuries or fatalities have been reported.
In Serbia, the snow continued to fall Sunday as some 50,000 people remained stranded in snowbound remote areas, some without electricity. In Albania the government is expected to declare a state of emergency in the north and south of the country, said Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Much of Italy's north-central east was digging out Sunday after heavy snowfall collapsed roofs onto barnyard animals, closed roads and wreaked havoc with air transport.
Twenty horses were killed when a roof collapsed in Badia Tedalda, one of the central Tuscan towns hardest hit by the snow, the ANSA news agency reported. In Le Marche, regional civil protection crews reported thousands of cows, pigs and other farm animals killed.
In Rome, the sun shone and whatever snow remained from Saturday's blizzard - the second in as many weeks - melted away. But Mayor Gianni Alemanno kept a ban in place on motorcycles in the city center, where some streets remained icy.
In Russia, 20,000 amateur and professional cross-country skiers in Yakhroma, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Moscow, were undeterred by temperatures of minus 23 degrees Celsius (minus 9 Fahrenheit. They raced for five kilometers (about three miles) as part of a mass skiing competition held every year.
Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.
Why is this different than what WikiLeaks did? This is not the first time Obama has betrayed the US and its allies. (See UK story below)
Washington TimesAs first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.
There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses.
Officials from the State Department and Missile Defense Agency have discussed the idea of providing the SM-3 data to the Russians as part of the so-far fruitless missile-defense talks with Moscow, headed in part of by Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher, who defense officials say is a critic of U.S. missile defenses.
Their thinking is that if the Russians know the technical data, it will help allay Moscow’s fears that the planned missile defenses in Europe would be used against Russian ICBMs. (Isn’t that the idea of missile defense?) Officials said current SM-3s are not fast enough to catch long-range Russian missiles, but a future variant may have some anti-ICBM capabilities.
Ms. Tauscher has repeatedly denied that her talks with the Russians are secret. However, theadministration has provided almost no briefings about the talks to Congress, which prompted critics of the talks to include language in the new defense spending law limiting data-sharing.
Section 1227 of the defense law prohibits spending any funds that would be used to give Russian officials access to sensitive missile-defense technology, as part of a cooperation agreement without first sending Congress a report identifying the specific secrets, how they would be used and steps to protect the data from compromise.
The president also must certify to Congress that Russia will not share the secrets with other states and that it will not help Russia “to develop countermeasures” to U.S. defenses. (As if we could ever/should ever trust the Russians)
The certification also must show whether Russia is providing equal access to its missile defense technologies, which are mainly nuclear-tipped anti-missile interceptors. (In your dreams)
Mr. Obama said in the signing statement that he would treat the legal restrictions as “non-binding.”
“While my administration intends to keep the Congress fully informed of the status of U.S. efforts to cooperate with the Russian Federation on ballistic missile defense, my administration will also interpret and implement section 1244 in a manner that does not interfere with the president’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications,” Mr. Obama said, incorrectly identifying the section of the law containing the restrictions. (How is spitting on the constitution and putting the country in peril not treason?)
An Iranian exhibition will showcase four Israeli drones, the Tehran Times reported on Wednesday. According to the report, The exhibition will also display three American drones and will be open to local press and foreign ambassadors.
The newspaper quoted a source saying that Iran seized the Israeli jets after they invaded Iran's aerial space on its eastern border. The US drones were apparently caught when flying over eastern and southern Iran.
Last January, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander announced that his forces intercepted two spy planes in the Persian Gulf. He did not mention where the jets came from or where they were intercepted but also addressed Israel in the same statement.
Obama as petulant child in Iran cartoon
The exhibition is part of Tehran's psychological warfare campaign following the interception of a US drone last week. The Islamic Republic wants to prove it can thwart any aerial infiltration attempt and prevent spying missions targeting its nuclear facilities.
Drone exhibition
Last week, Iran showcased the RQ-170 US spy drone it brought down. The Iranians stressed they will study the aircraft and its radar systems.
Tehran stressed it will not return the drone despite President Barack Obama's demand.
The Fars news agency published a number of cartoons mocking Obama, portraying him as a petulant child.
It was also reported that Russia and China asked Iran to allow their experts to inspect the drone. An Iranian official traveled to Moscow to discuss the matter.
"But the biggest thing that`s happened is the president has been able to unite the world, including Russia and China, in continuing to ostracize and to isolate Iran. So, the truth is -- and I really mean this, Rachel -- the talk about the projection, the capacity of Iraq to project power in the Gulf is actually diminished. They are less feared. They are less -- they have less influence than they have had any time, I would argue, in the last 20 years."
Moscow is deploying warships at its base in the Syrian port of Tartus. The long-planned mission comes, providentially, at the very moment when it could help prevent a potential conflict in the strategically important Middle Eastern country.
The Russian battle group will consist of three vessels led by the heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, Admiral Kuznetsov.
Russian military officials insist that the move has no connection with the ongoing crisis in the region and was planned a year ago, the Izvestia newspaper reports. Apart from Syria, the aircraft carrier and its escort ships are set to visit the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Genoa in Italy and Cyprus, says the former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko.
Nevertheless, he added that the presence of a military force other than NATO’s is very useful for this region, because“it will prevent the outbreak of an armed conflict,” Izvestia quoted Kravchenko as saying.
The Soviet Union, the Admiral recalled, created a special naval squadron to deter Western military forces in the Mediterranean Sea. To repair and supply its ships, Moscow needed its own maintenance base in the region, and that was how the base in Tartus came into being.
At present, the base is mostly used to support vessels of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Some 600 military and civilian personnel of the Defense Ministry serve there.
News of Russia’s naval deployment in Tartus came shortly after the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush anchored off Syria, along with additional naval vessels. The US battle group is to remain in the Mediterranean, allegedly to conduct maritime security operations and support missions as part of Operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn. The US 6th Fleet is also patrolling the area, Interfax reports.
“Of course, the Russian naval forces in the Mediterranean will be incommensurate with those of the US 6th Fleet, which includes one or two aircraft carriers and several escort ships,” Admiral Kravchenko explained. “But today, no one talks about possible military clashes, since an attack on any Russian ship would be regarded as a declaration of war with all the consequences.”
The mission is set to start in early December, when the Admiral Kuznetsov begins its journey in the Barents Sea, accompanied by another vessel of Russia’s Northern Fleet, the heavy ASW ship Admiral Chabanenko. The group will then skirt the European continent from the west and enter the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar.
Later, they will be joined by frigate Ladny of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It will travel through the Bosphorus, with a stop-over in Malta’s Valletta. Read More
A top Russian female newsreader who appeared to defiantly show US President Barack Obama her middle finger during a live newscast has been fired. Tatyana Limanova, an award-winning senior newsreader at the channel, can be seen briskly reading out an item about APEC
No truth to the rumor being spread by the DNC that Fox News has offered her a job. The White House quickly released a reminder that in Russia a display of the middle finger means “I embrace Hope and Change and all it stands for.”
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Iranian government continues to support the right to self-determination for Palestine. Ahmadinejad also said Iran is talking to Russia about building additional nuclear power reactors.
