BBC - Friday, 31 October, 2003

The Russian Orthodox Church and the Moscow city schools administration are taking a stand against Halloween.

The educators say that bringing elements of religion into the classroom is inappropriate, while the clerics condemn its connection with evil spirits.

The Moscow education administration has written to schools banning celebrations.

"Religious elements in the celebrations contradict the secular part of the education in state educational institutions," the letter said, according to Russia's NTV.

Only communist elements are allowed like during May 1st parade. Full story here.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top aide to Saddam Hussein is believed to be working with an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group to coordinate attacks in Iraq, says a senior defense official.

Two captured members of Ansar al-Islam have identified Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri as a force behind some of the attacks, the official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It is the first solid evidence of links between remnants of Saddam's regime and the non-Iraqi fighters responsible for at least some of the attacks on U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies, the official said.

Pentagon officials say Ansar al-Islam, which operated in northern Iraq before its camp was destroyed during the war, poses one of the greatest threats in Iraq. Military commanders have said they believe hundreds of non-Iraqi fighters from Ansar have entered Iraq to fight the U.S.-led occupation, many of them through neighboring Iran.

Al-Douri is No. 6 on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis and was vice chairman of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council. He was one of Saddam's few longtime confidants and his daughter was married to Saddam's son, Odai, who was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in July.

NBC News first reported the al-Douri link to Ansar al-Islam Tuesday night. Asked Wednesday about the report, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said he did not know anything about it.

Attacks on American troops have surged this week to about 33 per day, up from 26 per day last week and 15 per day in early September. A series of car bombings in and near Baghdad this week killed more than three dozen people.

The New York Times reported in Thursday's editions that President Bush wants to speed up plans for putting Iraqi security forces on the streets of Baghdad and other areas where Americans have come under attack. The report, attributed to unidentified military and administration officials, said plan would mean arming 18- and 19-year-old Iraqis for security duty after only a few weeks of training.

U.S. officials have been searching for months for suspected links between Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters like Ansar members. Bush and other U.S. officials have said they believe the bombings in Baghdad Monday were the work of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters or both.

Pentagon officials say the Baghdad bombings -- four explosions in different parts of the city in less than an hour -- show a level of sophistication they had not seen before. Di Rita said the bombings indicated coordination ``at least at the regional level.''

The defense official who discussed the al-Douri link said he did not know if the al-Douri-Ansar alliance was responsible for the Baghdad bombings. He said military officials don't know to what extent al-Douri was coordinating attacks with Ansar.

Earlier this month, American forces captured a top associate of al-Douri in the town of Baqouba north of Baghdad.

U.S. officials have said for at least two months they suspect al-Douri of coordinating attacks on Americans but had not previously linked him to Ansar.

U.S. officials say Ansar al-Islam has links to al-Qaida and has experimented with producing crude biological and chemical weapons. The group operated in a small section of northern Iraq surrounded by Kurdish-controlled areas which were outside Saddam's control.

Kurdish officials have long alleged that Saddam's government helped Ansar, but U.S. officials have said they haven't yet found definitive proof of that.

Moscow, 30 October 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Russia's top court today struck down restrictions placed on media covering election campaigns.

The decision is seen as a victory for free speech, and comes just five weeks before a parliamentary vote.

Russia's Constitutional Court ruled that election-law amendments adopted earlier this year are unconstitutional because they could be "broadly interpreted" and therefore applied arbitrarily.

The amendments, which came into effect this summer, forbade journalists from "electioneering," which the law defined as taking positions on candidates and parties, or reporting on their policies.

The court today said that the law could lead to violations of freedom of speech.

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin tightened his grip on the Kremlin on Thursday by relieving his chief of staff from duty, Russian news agencies reported, a move likely to deepen political and economic turmoil following the arrest of Russia's richest tycoon.

Putin named Dmitry Medvedev, the first deputy chief of staff and the chairman of the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, to succeed Alexander Voloshin in the post. Medvedev is one of many figures in Putin's St. Petersburg circle who have been jockeying for influence with other groups in the Kremlin.

Rumors that Voloshin had resigned rattled Russian political and business circles for several days.

Voloshin, the last major figure in the Kremlin from the Boris Yeltsin era and a top Kremlin advocate of big business, reportedly offered his resignation to protest Saturday's arrest and jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of the Russian oil giant Yukos.

The announcement of Voloshin's departure came hours after prosecutors froze a huge chunk of Yukos shares, plunging the stock market into its second nosedive in a week. The benchmark RTS Russian stock index closed down 8 percent after the announcement of the share freeze and Yukos shares lost 14 percent.

Voloshin's departure would signal a strengthening of the security-service faction in the Kremlin -- connected with Putin from his days as a KGB agent -- which appears eager to stem the influence of magnates such as Khodorkovsky.

Medvedev, the man Putin named to replace Voloshin, has no security-service background, and his views on big business are not widely known.

But Medvedev's election in 2000 by shareholders as chairman of Gazprom was seen as heralding government attempts to bring more influence to bear on the company, which is Russia's largest. The government owns 38 percent of the shares in Gazprom, which controls more than 90 percent of the gas production in Russia and 25 percent of the world's gas reserves.

A subsidiary of Gazprom took control of independent NTV television in 2001 after the collapse of Vladimir Gusinsky's empire in the first of the Putin-era legal actions targeting the ``oligarchs.''

Infighting in the Kremlin has been a hallmark of Putin's presidency, and Voloshin's departure is likely to help Putin consolidate his own power and that of his allies. Medvedev worked in the early 1990s as an aide to the late St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, as did Putin after he left the KGB.

Voloshin was a key figure under Yeltsin in the years when former Soviet state industries were privatized at giveaway prices in dubious auctions. Voloshin and his allies believed that privatization would help prevent a Communist comeback following the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Voloshin, who was named Yeltsin's chief of staff in March 1999, was regarded as a central figure in the so-called ``Family,'' the group of businessmen and politicians who wielded enormous power under Yeltsin. Former Russian chief prosecutor Yuri Skuratov alleged in 1999 that there was substantial evidence connecting Voloshin to graft in the corruption-tainted Yeltsin administration.

The stock market's sharp reaction Thursday to the announcement of the share freeze appeared to reflect investor fears that a probe of Yukos that began in July could foretell troubles for Russia's biggest companies.

Many worry that the Kremlin could launch a broad revision of the results of the privatization of the 1990s, in which tycoons like Khodorkovsky snapped up prized chunks of state assets. Some analysts believe that Khodorkovsky's arrest will serve as an example to other phenomenally wealthy Russians to refrain from challenging Putin.

The freeze was a new escalation in a 4-month-old probe of Yukos, which took a dramatic turn on Saturday when Khodorkovsky was arrested and jailed after being seized by special agents at a Siberian airport.

The arrest was widely seen as an action staged by some of Putin's top lieutenants to avenge the tycoon's political activities, which included funding of opposition parties.

Top Russian media reported that Voloshin submitted his resignation to Putin on Saturday after Khodorkovsky's arrest, but agreed to wait a few more days to avoid inflicting political damage to the president.

Interfax reported Thursday that Anatoly Chubais, the head of the Unified Energy Systems electricity monopoly, invited Voloshin, who serves as the company's board chairman, to become a full-time employee of the company. UES wouldn't comment on the report.

Putin, in a Kremlin meeting with top businessmen and investors on Thursday, made no reference to Yukos. He said that Russia has taken many steps to improve the business climate, such as judicial reforms and improving demands for corporate transparency.

But later one of the participants, Morgan Stanley International president Stephan Newhouse told Dow Jones Newswires that ``he assured us that this (Yukos case) does not represent a campaign against business or any change in the government's commitment to the market economy.''

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prosecutors targeted another top shareholder in Russia's biggest oil company YUKOS Wednesday, heightening a political drama that may also cost one of the Kremlin's most powerful men his job.

Shares in the oil giant, whose billionaire boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested at gunpoint Saturday, slid three percent after prosecutors asked a court to lift the immunity of a key shareholder who was charged with tax evasion this month.

The company is at the center of what most analysts see as a drive by Kremlin ``hawks'' to reassert the state's authority over Russian business and stage-manage coming elections for parliament in December and the presidency early next year.

Khodorkovsky -- one of a handful of people who made vast fortunes in the post-Soviet privatizations of the 1990s -- is backing two minor liberal parties in the parliamentary polls and many analysts say he planned to run for president in 2008.

A statement from the general prosecutors' office said it wanted the election to the upper chamber of parliament of Vasily Shakhnovsky, who owns 4.5 per cent of YUKOS, to be annulled and so end his immunity from charges of tax evasion.

Shakhnovsky, president of Yukos-Moscow, was voted in to the Federation Council as a representative of the remote Evenkia region Monday, 10 days after he was charged with tax evasion.

Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov -- seen as one of the Kremlin hawks -- was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying he did not see anything illegal in the action taken against YUKOS.

``A review of the results of privatization is inadmissible,'' he said in St Petersburg.

But he added: ``All the mineral resources that Russia has do not belong to some company, or to a person, but to the citizens of Russia. If some firm offers to manage these resources, that does not mean that they can privatize our profits.''

REPORTS SAY KREMLIN AIDE QUITS

In another possible sign of the Kremlin hawks' ascendancy, local media reported that Putin had accepted the resignation of his chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, who is seen as the leader of a rival pro-business camp.

Known as the ``Gray Cardinal,'' Voloshin, 47, rose under Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin and is regarded as one of Russia's most powerful 'backroom' political figures.

But he and his circle of Yeltsin-era officials are viewed as tainted by their links to Khodorkovsky and other oligarchs.

The Kremlin gave only an indirect denial of the resignation.

``If this were the case the press service would have announced it. Those who say this do not have official information,'' said presidential spokesman Alexei Gromov.

Khodorkovsky's dramatic arrest was widely seen as a warning to the business elite not to meddle in politics.

Putin is widely believed to have made a deal with the oligarchs when he came to power in 2000 not to interfere in their businesses as long as they stayed out of politics.

Two other tycoons -- Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky -- later fell out with the Kremlin and fled into exile.

``The real balance of power in the Kremlin has shifted -- to people in uniforms,'' said Dmitry Oreshkin, of the Merkator think tank.

Putin, a former KGB spy, has brought increasing numbers of state security and military officials into top jobs.

The drama has hit Russia's booming financial markets, with the share market -- led by YUKOS -- falling again Wednesday after a recovery the previous day. The ruble, however, managed to rise to its highest level in almost two years.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Confidence in Russia's economy and leadership fell dramatically Monday after the weekend arrest of its richest man, with the ruble losing value against the dollar and shares of the biggest oil producer being pulled from trading because their worth plunged by one-fifth.

President Vladimir Putin defended prosecutors' decision to arrest Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom special forces seized in a stunning operation at a Siberian airport. But fears were high that the move could stall the Russian economy, which recently has seen robust progress back from the 1998 collapse of the ruble.

``Capitalism with Stalin's Face,'' blared a headline in the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

``The prosecutor general has been allowed to turn Russia into a VIP jail,'' echoed the business daily Kommersant.

Khodorkovsky's arrest was an escalation of the probe into the Yukos oil company that began in July and that many analysts and politicians have speculated is political revenge for the tycoon's funding of opposition parties.

Yukos this month completed arrangements to form what would be the world's fourth-largest oil company by merging with Russia's Sibneft, and it carries a huge influence in Russia's economy. Its shares were down 15 percent at the close of trading; the RTS benchmark index of Russian stocks closed down 14 percent.

Earlier in the day, after Yukos shares lost 20 percent, trading on the Moscow exchange was halted for an hour. The ruble, which this year has made an overall 12 percent rise against the U.S. dollar, dipped 1 percent.

The arrest of Khodorkovsky rattled even risk-hardened foreign investors. Analysts and fund managers in Europe and Russia said that markets badly wanted assurances that the Kremlin was not going to reshuffle the privatizations of the 1990s that created some of Russia's biggest companies.

Putin tried to calm fears of a wider-ranging government move against prominent businesses.

``Everyone should be equal before the law, irrespective of how many billions of dollars a person has on his personal or corporate account,'' Putin said at the start of his regular Cabinet session.

``Otherwise, we will never teach and force anyone to pay taxes ... and defeat organized crime and corruption.''

Khodorkovsky, whose fortune was estimated at $8 billion by Forbes magazine, was jailed after being charged with tax evasion, fraud and forgery, Putin said.

``I proceed from the assumption that the court had reason to do that,'' he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that ``we're concerned about the potentially negative implications for the rule of law in this case.''

Russia's top three business associations, which have been careful not to antagonize the Kremlin throughout the Yukos probe, issued a strong appeal to Putin on Sunday, urging him to rein in the prosecutors. Russia's top liberal parties said in a statement that democracy was in danger.

Putin shrugged off the appeals Monday, saying, ``There will be no meetings and no bargaining in regard to the activities of the law enforcement structures.''

At the same time, he sought to quell fears that the attack on Yukos could trigger a broader revision of the controversial privatization programs of the 1990s, during which tycoons such as Khodorkovsky snapped up lucrative state assets at giveaway prices.

``I would like everyone to stop the speculation and hysteria on this issue,'' Putin said.

The probe began in July with the arrest of Platon Lebedev, chairman of the holding company that is Yukos' core shareholder on charges of theft of state property. This month, prosecutors also filed tax evasion charges against a high Yukos manager, Vasily Shakhnovsky.

However, Shakhnovsky resigned his position as head of Yukos' day-to-day operations Monday in the wake of being elected to the upper house of the Russian parliament representing an eastern Siberia district. His replacement is Steven Theede, an American who joined Yukos this year after heading European and Caspian exploration and production for Conoco Phillips, Yukos announced.

Analysts said Westerners with money in Russia, already unnerved since by the investigation of Khodorkovsky, were likely to remain cautious until they get more clarity on the Kremlin's attitude toward the country's business titans.

One major investment that may be held up is the potential deal by U.S.-based Exxon Mobile or ChevronTexaco to buy a stake in Yukos, said Alexander Karpov, an emerging markets fund manager at Union Investment in Frankfurt.

Many foreigners bought Yukos shares on speculation about such a deal, he said. Now, ``in the current situation, the Americans will stay away,'' Karpov said. ``Global investors will be worried and reduce their positions in Yukos.''

U.S. oil companies have been eyeing Russia's vast fields as a source to meet growing world energy demand but have moved slowly in the still-risky Russian marketplace.

Karpov and others say investors will only calm down if authorities make it clear that the case is only about Khodorkovsky and Yukos -- not a prelude to prosecutions and disruptions at other companies.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the head of Russia's largest oil producer, Yukos, was detained early Saturday by security forces at an airport in Siberia, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Yukos company officials.

For months, the Russian prosecutor's office has been investigating Yukos company officials and Yukos shareholders seeking evidence of tax evasion and theft of state property.

Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin was quoted by Interfax as saying that the plane was surrounded by trucks after it landed in Novosibirsk for a refueling stop.

Special forces in camouflage and black uniform boarded the plane, reportedly shouting ``FSB, put your weapons down or we'll shoot.'' The FSB is the acronym for the Federal Security Service, a successor of the Soviet-era KGB. A representative of the security forces then told Khodorkovsky to accompany them and he agreed.

The prosecutor's office confirmed that Khodorkovsky was detained because he had failed to appear for questioning on Friday as summoned, according to Interfax.

``In the framework of the criminal case, M. Khodorkovsky was summoned for questioning Friday. However, he deliberately ignored the summons for questioning, and in conjunction with that, a decision was made to force his appearance, which was done,'' the prosecutor general's office said.

Earlier this week, Russian prosecutors searched a company for evidence in connection with the criminal probe into Yukos, according to Interfax.

The company, Strategic Communications Agency, allegedly holds computer databases for companies controlled by the Russian oil giant, and Interfax said prosecutors hoped to find evidence of tax evasion on the databases.

Yukos denied that it had any connection to the company.

The investigation began in July with the arrest of Platon Lebedev, a top Yukos shareholder and board chairman of Menatep Group, on charges of theft of state property during the 1994 privatization of a fertilizer plant. Lebedev has remained in jail awaiting trial.

Last week, prosecutors also filed tax evasion charges against a Yukos manager, Vasily Shakhnovsky, who oversees day-to-day company operations and is responsible for customer relations and auditing.

Prosecutors also have carried out searches of Yukos-owned companies and the homes of Yukos shareholders.

Yukos recently completed its merger with its smaller rival Sibneft to create one of the world's top oil producers, and will formally become the new entity after a November shareholder meeting.

When he was detained on Saturday, Khodorkovsky was on his way from the Volga River town of Nizhny Novgorod to Irkutsk in central Siberia on a business trip. He had been expected back in Moscow on Monday, Interfax reported.

When the plane landed in Novosibirsk shortly before dawn, two buses full of men in camouflage drove up the plane. Khodorovsky was taken away from the airport. ``At present, the oil company Yukos is unaware of the whereabouts of M. Khodorkovsky,'' Interfax quoted Shadrin as saying.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Madame Chiang Kai-shek, once the most powerful woman in China, has died aged 106 at her home in New York, Taiwan officials said Friday.

Born Soong May-ling, the beautiful, iron-willed woman was feared for decades as a formidable force behind her husband, Chinese Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

``We were told that Madame Chiang passed away at about 11 something last night,'' Andrew Hsia, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, told Reuters by telephone.

``We were told that she passed away very peacefully while she was resting,'' he said.

In World War II, Madame Chiang was China's voice to the outside world, captivating the American public and bringing the U.S. congress to its feet with a passionate appeal for anti-Japanese aid.

Madame Chiang escaped to Taiwan from the mainland with her husband and the Nationalist government after they lost a civil war to the communists in 1949.

Her power only began to fade with Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975. Democratic reforms that swept Taiwan from the late 1980s onwards erased all but the last vestiges of her influence.

Hsia said Madame Chiang's niece and her niece's husband were with her when she died in her apartment in Manhattan, where Chiang had lived quietly with a few nurses and security guards.

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said in a statement he was saddened by her death and offered his condolences.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court has sentenced a cyber-dissident to three years in prison for subversion for posting articles on the Internet attacking the government, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said on Thursday.

Thirty-eight people are in prison in China for posting material on Web sites and online discussion forums as part of a crackdown on online dissent, the press freedom organization said in a statement.

The People's Intermediate Court in the northeastern city of Changchun convicted Luo Yongzhong on October 14 for posting more than 150 articles that were ``an incitement to subversion and had a bad effect on society,'' the group quoted the court as saying.

A court official reached by telephone declined to comment on the case which was also condemned by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

``The Chinese government has once again used subversion charges to silence criticism of official policy,'' CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said in a statement.

``Luo has simply expressed his personal views and should be released immediately. All charges against him should be dropped,'' Cooper added.

Luo sold beer and cigarettes in Changchun and was not a journalist, but the two groups which champion press and Internet freedom in China decided to take up his case.

Luo, who suffers a physical disability, was taken into custody in June, CPJ said.

In addition to jailing Internet dissidents, China has created a special Internet police force, blocked some foreign sites and shut down domestic sites posting politically incorrect fare.

North Korea has been accused of killing the babies of women who are forcibly repatriated from China.

Kept in short-term detention camps, the women are either given abortions or their babies are killed at birth, according to a report by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (CHRNK).

The CHRNK report, based on the testimony of dozens of escaped prisoners, paints a picture of detention centres and camps where torture, chronic malnutrition and forced labour are commonplace.

One woman told of being forced to assist injection-induced labours and then watching as a baby was suffocated with a wet towel in front of its mother.

Many former prisoners told of babies buried alive or left face down on the ground to die. They were told by guards this was to prevent the survival of half-Chinese babies.

Full story here.

The war crimes tribunal has indicted four top Serbian generals for alleged atrocities during the Kosovo war. They include former Chief of Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic and current head of Serbian public security Sreten Lukic.They are charged with the deportation and murder of hundreds of Kosovo Albanians in the first part of 1999.

Prosecutors say they were part of a joint criminal enterprise led by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic who is on trial at The Hague. The indictment said they had co-operated in actions which resulted in the forced deportation of about 800,000 Kosovo Albanian civilians.

Full story here.

LOS ANGELES - A grass-roots campaign is setting its sights on overturning a new law that grants drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, hoping to tap voter anger over the bill Gov. Gray Davis signed in the weeks before he was recalled.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, elected to replace Davis, has promised to work to repeal the law. But the conservative California Republican Assembly, not willing to wait, launched a petition drive two weeks ago to put the matter before voters in the March election.

The group says it has gathered nearly 40,000 voter signatures. It must collect 375,000 by Dec. 7 to get the issue on the ballot.

Supporters of the new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, say it will increase highway safety by requiring illegal immigrants who drive anyway to pass tests and buy insurance.

Critics say it increases the chances of terrorism by granting licenses to people who aren't in this country legally.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: It seems that American fascists are on the drive to create Fourth Reich. Hiding behind Bush and Schwarzenegger and their popular support some hideous Nazi groups want to make America one giant concentration camp. It is estimated that around 10 million people live in America without permanent residence or green card. Some of them have spent well over ten and twenty years living in America but that means nothing to this xenophobic Nazi clique. Repeal of license law in California is just one step towards chaos that ultimately can result only in another civil war. After all, most of the slaves were nothing but African immigrants stripped of all documents and all rights. Spirit of southern slavery is gaining grounds again threatening to destroy United States. These cowards and torturers always hide themselves using various legal loop holes and celebrities to push their vision of darkness. If immigration issues are not resolved until the end of this year there is a little chance that they will ever be resolved thus offering the only solution left and that is Hitler's "final solution". There are already plans for this "final solution" that circulate on the web. Arresting over ten million people is no problem for them as well as building enough concentration camps where illegal people can do their slave work for free and then be gassed and cremated. Deportation is out of the question because their logic is that "illegals" would try to come back again and since they don't want this to happen the best solution is to either keep them indefinitely as slaves in concentration camps or simply execute them. Whole operation would be covered up as Hitler did so that Red Cross and other organization can verify that prisoners are treated nicely. There is not much to think here. You either legalize these people or you kill them. Bush and Schwarzenegger can become Lincoln and Reagan or they can choose other path, path to satanism and hell and become next Hitler and Pol Pot. It is up to them.

Immigration Dogma

Q: Granting licenses to people who aren't in this country legally increases the chances of terrorism.
A: There is a domestic and international terrorism. Timothy McVeigh had his drivers license when he slammed the truck full of explosives at federal building in Oklahoma City. He was an American so this proposition wouldn't stop him from bombing. And even if he wasn't American why would he care about drivers license and is it a big problem buying it on the black market? It is proven that all major terrorist attacks are well organized and financed. What would be the problem for them to obtain false passports and other documents?

Q: Granting licenses to people who aren't in this country legally will cause more cars on highways and bigger pollution.
A: Illegal or legal immigrants don't bring cars with them so cars they drive are purchased in America. Car dealers make good money and American workers in American car factories keep their jobs and get more money for their families. Too many cars and pollution can be addressed with legislations supporting more efficient cars, cleaner fuel and alternative transportation methods which has nothing to do with "illegals" or legals.

Q: Illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans.
A: Fact is that immigrants come to America because of American lack of interest for certain jobs. How many Americans are fighting to get job in the field to pick up cotton or tomatoes? How many Americans like to spend twenty years and more in schools to work as physicists, chemists or other high tech jobs that don't get paid well? There is constant lack of computer programmers in California.

Q: All people without green card are illegal immigrants.
A: Only those without entrance visas are illegal immigrants. All others are legal and they are residents. Until license law was abolished, all people without permanent residence (green card) were banned from obtaining drivers license. That includes people who were approved by immigration but then they have to wait 3-5 years to get their green cards, people who work legitimately on various working visas including computer programmers, international students invited by American universities who study in America and all other registered immigrants.

Q: Illegal immigrants cost American tax payers billions of dollars every year.
A: There is no welfare for illegal immigrants nor any kind of other aid like free housing which is standard in West European countries. The only complaints are about women giving birth to their children in public hospitals or children attending public schools. This can be arranged through some kind of health insurance or school tuition that would immigrants pay but no one has any intention of proposing that. Many immigrants would pay all these costs and many are paying but some cases of very poor people who can't afford high medical costs are abused to persecute majority of immigrants. Most homeless Americans and those who lost their jobs can't pay either but that is ignored intentionally. Maybe they will start deporting them too in the near future.

Q: United States is unique country and immigration issues can't be treated the same way as in other countries.
A: That's what Castro claims for Cuba, Kim Jong Il for North Korea, etc. Every country is unique but yet most of them are members of UN and they have all signed UN Human Rights Charter. If United States government wants to leave UN then they are free to do so because United States is sovereign country. In that case they can ban all refugees, asylum seekers, guest workers and other migrants and seal their borders. It is government's choice but under current laws and regulations they have to accept immigrants.

Q: There is a visa lottery so every year 50,000 people can come to live in America. That is more than generous so all other forms of immigration should be banned immediately.
A: Although 50,000 looks huge it is actually one big lie as all lotteries are. You don't become president by playing lottery, you don't become NBA superstar by playing lottery (draft lottery doesn't count), you don't play Russian roulette with your life if you are a refugee. If they pick you up then you live, if they don't you remain in Cuba and you die. Even worse, this lottery has certain conditions. You need to have college degree and working experience. The worst part is that people from certain countries can't participate in this lottery like China and that total number is divided among many countries thus further reducing chances on winning it. Big question is if the list of those who win is ever published in public and if those people ever really come to America at all. There is also a strong indication that many of winners are actually CIA spies and informants from countries around the world so this seems as a perfect cover for bringing them to America without too much publicity and asking questions. Many high ranking police officials from Serbia were winners in the past few years which is hardly a coincidence after their appearances in the Hague as witnesses and documents they have provided.

Immigration FAQ

Q: How many years of residence you need to accrue to get permanent resident status?
A: Initially it was five years, then 7 and now is ten although due to time stop rule, all who are in deportation proceedings are excludable from this. If you have been resident for 8 years and you have been served with notice to appear then you can not become permanent resident although legal proceedings can take over ten years alone. It is possible that people who spent over 20 years of living continuously in America be deported permanently with no chances of ever going back although they didn't commit any crime ever. This is unique and there is no other country in the world doing similar thing. In most cases, if approved, people get their permanent residence within two years in most countries. This is obviously an exploitation and legalized slavery where people are intentionally brought and kept in America in order to perform menial jobs while all their benefits denied.

Q: Is there a current plan to resolve this issue in the long run?
A: No! There was a talk about 3 million Mexican immigrants being granted permanent residence if they show proof of illegal work for 5 years from employers who offer them job illegally but that was sacked long time ago. Incredibly stupid plan that would force people to admit breaking laws for five years and then rewarding them with permanent residence. Why would employers admit breaking law in the first place and how can these people prove their residence and job for five years is unknown.

Q: What would be the best solution?
A: It is strange to admit but Putin's plan in Russia would be acceptable. Five years of continuous residence should be the only reason for getting permanent residence. No job or any other proof should be necessary. People are innocent until proven guilty so there is no reason for someone to prove that he or she is not a criminal by submitting some proof of employment and even if someone is a member of organized crime that doesn't mean that he or she can't fake that and obtain false documents. Those who are found guilty of serious criminal charges are in most cases deported so there is no need to doubt innocent people and prolong their misery. Immigrants in America are second class citizens similar to the Jews in Nazi Germany or African immigrants in southern states in early XIX century America. John Carpenters movies "Escape from NY" and "Escape from LA" might become next 1984.

The Russian parliament has simplified the procedure of acquiring Russian citizenship and allowed foreigners to serve in the Russian army.

The law on Russian citizenship, adopted last year, was criticised by many as draconian, as it made it extremely difficult for nationals of the former republics of the Soviet Union to acquire Russian citizenship.

President Vladimir Putin, who was thought to have backed the law, has heeded the criticism and asked the Duma to review it.

It should be much easier now to become a Russian citizen, especially for nationals of the countries of the former Soviet Union or those who reside and work in Russia as foreigners.

They do not even have to prove they are fluent in Russian, as the law previously required.

The amended legislation cuts back on red tape and even offers incentives for prospective citizens.

For the first time in Russia's modern history, foreigners can join the Russian army, and get Russian citizenship through the fast track.

Full story here.

A Greek court has refused a request from the Russian authorities for the extradition of fugitive media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky on fraud and money laundering charges.

"The court ruled against extradition. It orders the (arrest) warrant to be made void and lift the restrictions of movement and return bail," presiding judge Nikos Fagiolas said.

The hearing lasted little more that one minute with the judge declaring that the charges levelled against the tycoon did not constitute a crime under Greek law.

Mr Gusinsky is now free to leave Greece.

Full story here.

Prague, 13 October 2003 (RFE/RL) -- A Czech appeals court handed down a six-year jail sentence today to a former senior communist official who helped Soviet-led forces crush the "Prague Spring" reform movement in 1968.

Judges ruled that Karel Hoffmann, head of telecommunications at the time, committed sabotage by ordering Czechoslovak radio broadcasting to shut down during the invasion on 21 August 1968. He thus helped keep Czechs and Slovaks uninformed of what was happening as tanks rolled through the country.

Hoffmann is the first top politician of former communist Czechoslovakia to be sentenced for actions connected to the invasion that prompted tens of thousands to emigrate.

The radio said the High Court raised Karel Hoffmann's original four-year sentence, which was handed down by a lower court in June, after both the defendant and state attorney appealed the original decision.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Californians banished Gov. Gray Davis just 11 months into his second term and elected action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him Tuesday — a Hollywood ending to one of the most extraordinary political melodramas in the nation's history.

Voters traded a career Democratic politician who became one of the state's most despised chief executives for a moderate Republican megastar who had never before run for office. Davis became the first California governor pried from office and only the second nationwide to be recalled.

Schwarzenegger declared victory during a celebration at the Century Plaza Hotel, where he was introduced by Jay Leno, host of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," where he announced his candidacy just two months ago.

"I came here with absolutely nothing, and California has given me absolutely everything. And today, California has given me the greatest gift. You have given me your trust for voting for me," he said, surrounded by his wife, Maria Shriver, mother-in-law Eunice Shriver, and other Shriver and Kennedy relatives.

"I will do everything I can to live up to that trust. I will not fail you, I will not disappoint you, and I will not let you down."

Full story here.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish troops in Iraq have found four French-built advanced anti-aircraft missiles which were built this year, a Polish Defense Ministry spokesman told Reuters Friday.

France strongly denied having sold any such missiles to Iraq for nearly two decades, and said it was impossible that its newest missiles should turn up in Iraq.

``Polish troops discovered an ammunition depot on Sept. 29 near the region of Hilla and there were four French-made Roland-type missiles,'' Defense Ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak said.

``It is not the first time Polish troops found ammunition in Iraq but to our surprise these missiles were produced in 2003.''

The Roland anti-aircraft system is a short-range air defense missile in service with at least 10 countries, including France and Germany.

They are fired from a mobile launcher vehicle and defense experts say the missiles are highly effective against aircraft attacking at low and medium altitude.

Under a strict trade embargo imposed by the United Nations, Iraq was barred from importing arms after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Among others, Russia, Britain and France all sold arms to Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s. In Iraq's arsenal were Soviet-built Scud missiles, British Chieftain tanks and French Mirage fighters.

But Iraq managed to circumvent the arms trade ban in the 1990s through shadowy deals with various arms traders and kept its military equipment functioning.

``NO MILITARY EXPORTS''

``Since July 1990, France has not authorized a single shipment of military equipment to Iraq,'' a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. Similar accusations surfaced in the U.S. media in April, she said.

In 1980-81, 13 Roland-1 missile systems were shipped to Iraq and from 1983 to 1986, 100 Roland-2 missile systems. The Roland-3 has never been exported to Iraq, she said.

``It is not credible to say that the Roland missiles found a few days ago were produced in 2003 and delivered just before the Anglo-American intervention,'' the spokeswoman said. ``Let's be absolutely clear about this: no military exports to Iraq were licensed after July 1990.''

It was unlikely that the missiles could be used 17-18 years after their delivery, she added.

Mleczak said Polish troops were notified about the missiles by a local Iraqi, who received a reward for the information.

``The ammunition depot was neutralized,'' said Mleczak. Polish television pictures showed missiles placed in a shallow trench and a huge explosion when the Poles blew up munitions at the site.

Since early September, Poland, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, has led a multinational force in one of four so-called stabilization zones, in central Iraq.

In the run-up to the outbreak of the 2003 Iraq war, American and British combat pilots struck Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries repeatedly as they patrolled no-fly zones in the north and south of the country.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Forensic experts said Friday they had unearthed the remains of 629 Muslim victims of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war in a 10-week exhumation.

``It is by far the biggest mass grave in Bosnia, also in terms of the number of women and children found,'' Murat Hurtic, head of a regional department of the Commission for Missing Persons of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation, said of the Crni Vrh grave.

He said Crni Vrh, near the eastern town of Zvornik, was a ``secondary grave'' believed to contain bodies taken from at least two other sites to hide traces of the killings. Hurtic said his team would continue work at the other sites for several weeks.

``We found bodies with hands tied behind them with thick rope,'' he said, adding this was evidence the victims were executed after being taken prisoner.

Investigators found bullets in the skulls and bones of the victims, including children, and spent cartridges in the grave.

Hurtic said in some cases whole families were believed to have been slaughtered, leaving no relatives to even report them as missing persons.

He explained that documents retrieved in the grave suggested the victims were some of more than 1,400 Muslims who disappeared from Zvornik after Bosnian Serb forces, the former Yugoslav army and Serbian irregulars captured the town early in the war.

Hurtic said the body of one Muslim exhumed from the grave had been identified as one of a group of nearly 730 believed to have been executed near Zvornik on the same day in June 1992. The remains had been reburied by relatives.

``This is yet more evidence that the victims here are most probably Muslims from Zvornik,'' Hurtic told Reuters by telephone.

He said the Crni Vrh grave contained 481 complete bodies, or at least 200 more than found the nearby Glumina mass grave, where 274 bodies of Muslims in former Yugoslav army plastic bags were exhumed.

About 200,000 people are believed to have died in the Bosnian war, in which well-armed Serb forces fought allied Croats and Muslims, who later also fought each other. Thousands of civilians died in ``ethnic cleansing'' after the capture of towns and villages.

If you live in Russia's Far East and don't pay your electricity bills on time, you would be well advised to keep a close eye on your pets. The local electricity company is threatening to take them hostage in order to force consumers to pay up.

Not illegal

"We will take their nearest and dearest - their pets," says Dalenergo chief Nikolai Tkachev, whose company is owed $10m.

"And let a dad explain to his daughter why their beloved moggie was taken away."

The company would then hold the pets in detention until their owners stump up. If they don't, it will sell them to the highest bidder. Many locals are outraged.

"A dog or a cat are not a thing - they are like children to us," says one Russian woman, patting a donkey. "How can you take away children?"

But according to the authorities, and there is nothing illegal about seizing pets.

"Technically, a dog is a thing, a property," says Dmitry Kuznetsov, a chief bailiff. "It can be bought, sold or given away. So theoretically the scheme can work."

Full story here.