AP - July 31st, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's national security adviser said Sunday he expects Saddam Hussein to go on trial before mid-October and said the trial would be telecast throughout the Arab world.

Mouwaffak al-Rubaie told CNN's ''Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer'' that Iraqis would be able to see that Saddam has ''gone into the past and gone with the wind.''

He said he hoped Saddam would be tried publicly before the Iraqi Special Tribunal before Oct. 15, the day Iraqis are to vote whether to ratify a new constitution.

Tribunal officials say they expect Saddam to go on trial in September for his alleged role in the 1982 massacre of Shiites north of Baghdad.

''This is not going to be a political trial,'' al-Rubaie said.

He said Saddam would not be allowed ''to give us his rhetorics and his speeches on his nonsense. We are going to concentrate on the criminal side of it.''

Al-Rubaie added that the Iraqis would conduct a fair trial ''with a defense counsel in there, with a proper prosecuting counsel as well there, and everybody will watch this trial live on television.''

By JIM YARDLEY

BEIJING, July 29 - A teacher who raped 23 fourth- and fifth-grade girls after summoning them to his office was sentenced to death in western China, according to an account this week in a Chinese newspaper.

Parents and students in Xinji Village in Gansu Province, interviewed earlier this year, said the teacher, Li Guang, sent girls to buy him cigarettes and then locked them in his office when they returned. While the rest of the students held a study hall in the classroom, Mr. Li raped the girls in his office.

The case touched a fault line in Chinese society, where teachers still hold enormous influence over their students. The attacks occurred last year between September and November, and parents say the girls never spoke out because of their deference toward Mr. Li as a teacher. Some girls were raped multiple times.

The death sentence was reported this week in the Western Business Daily, the same newspaper that carried a short item earlier this year about Mr. Li's arrest. Unlike some sensational stories, which are widely reprinted in newspapers across the country, this case received scant attention, perhaps because government officials deemed the alarming number of attacks too controversial.

Even so, other stories about rapist teachers have recently trickled into the Chinese media. Last month, the Beijing News, a newspaper with a reputation for aggressive journalism, published a report about a primary school teacher who had raped two girls, ages 10 and 11, and was later caught molesting a girl he had blindfolded.

Experts believe such rapes are still rare in Chinese schools, though no official statistics are known to exist. Beatings, however, are thought to be far more common, especially in rural schools.

Mr. Li's lawyers tried to argue that he was mentally ill, the Western Business Daily reported. But the court instead relied on an assessment from a university expert who concluded that the teacher was competent. Mr. Li was ordered to pay $170 to two of the victims for medical costs, while his school was ordered to pay these same two girls $42.51, apparently mostly for medical costs. But the court also ruled that none of the girls were eligible for broader compensation from the country school district.

The initial newspaper report of the abuse, confirmed by the victims' parents, said that Mr. Li had raped 26 girls, though he was convicted for raping 23. There was no explanation for the discrepancy. The newspaper also suggested that Mr. Li used several tactics to lure the girls to his office, including offers of tutoring. The account noted that Mr. Li had "damaged the social image of teachers."

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine opposition lawmakers filed an impeachment complaint Monday against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, accusing her of vote-rigging and other allegations.

The filing against Arroyo, a staunch U.S. ally, claims she ''stole, cheated and lied'' to obtain and hold power. Her aides have moved to block the complaint on a legal technicality after Congress convenes following Arroyo's scheduled State of the Nation speech later Monday.

A summary of the complaint, seen by The Associated Press, accuses Arroyo of 10 major crimes including election fraud and corruption. It claims she can be impeached on at least four grounds.

''By so flouting justice and the rule of law, she has committed an unforgivable outrage against the Filipino people,'' it says.

Arroyo has denied manipulating the May 2004 ballot by discussing vote counting with an election official before she was declared the winner. She has said she is ready to face an impeachment trial to clear her name and has announced a ''truth commission'' also will probe the allegations against her.

Left-wing lawmakers have warned of a popular revolt -- like those that ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001 -- if pro-Arroyo lawmakers, who have a strong majority in the House of Representatives, kill or weaken the complaint.

About 40 left-wing and opposition lawmakers broke into applause and raised clenched fists after filing the complaint in Congress. It must be endorsed by at least one-third of the 236-member House to be sent to the Senate for a trial.

''I know none of us looks forward to this process, because it is liable to destabilize the economy ... at a time investors need political stability most of all,'' House speaker Jose de Venecia said. ''But I also feel that we need to put this issue behind us -- and that the president's best recourse is to confront the accusations against her in the manner the constitution prescribes.''

Senate President Franklin Drilon, who withdrew his support for Arroyo, appealed ''to all those who wield power'' to allow the impeachment process to move forward. ''Do not subvert our democratic process. Do not subvert the truth. Our people will not allow that.''

Opposition Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano said late Sunday the complaint was a few names shy of the required 79 signatories. He said he was confident the opposition would gather the rest in a few days.

A previous complaint was filed June 27 that was considered much weaker, and the latest must be reconciled with that one even it receives the required signatures.

Rep. Roilo Golez said anti-impeachment efforts ''could result in political extremism and severe instability.''

''Those guilty of rigging the impeachment process should be held fully responsible for the highly likely political firestorm,'' he said, citing media reports that some lawmakers were being offered bribes to not back the impeachment bid.

''Our battle cry is that she stole, cheated and lied,'' Cayetano said.

He said opposition lawmakers would consider boycotting Arroyo's State of the Nation Address.

''We will agree to listen if the president agrees to deliver her address under oath, otherwise, we'll just join our constituents in the various rallies outside Congress,'' he told Radio DZBB.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's diplomats and agents in the United States help Beijing to carry out a crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual sect, a former Chinese diplomat who is seeking asylum in Australia said on Thursday.

Chen Yonglin told a congressional panel probing China's human rights record that his job for the past four years at the Chinese consulate in Sydney was to spy on and to persecute followers of Falun Gong, which China banned in 1999 after branding it an ``evil cult.''

He presented documents naming six diplomats in the mission he fled in May who worked for a Chinese government agency whose ``sole task is to monitor and persecute the Falun Gong.''

``To my knowledge, similar groups have been established in the Chinese missions in the United States and all other countries where the Falun Gong is active,'' Chen said in testimony to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations.

``I know that there are over 1,000 Chinese secret agents and informants in Australia and the number in the United States should not be less,'' he said.

The Chinese embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment. On July 11, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said ``lies created'' by Chen did not merit an official response.

Chen said Beijing viewed the United States and Australia as main Falun Gong bases abroad and Chinese diplomats there were required to denounce the group, distribute anti-sect brochures and pressure businesses, schools and media to shun Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is an amalgam of religions, meditation and exercises that the Chinese government began crushing after 10,000 members surrounded the Communist leadership's Beijing compound in a dawn protest in 1999.

Falun Gong practitioners say between 1,000 and 2,000 followers died from police brutality and 100,000 were sent to labor camps in the crackdown. But the figures have not been confirmed independently.

Chen, 37, said he was told in 2003 by a top official from a team set up in the Chinese Foreign Ministry to fight Falun Gong that there were 60,000 followers in China, half in prison camps and half under tight government control.

Other witnesses told the hearing that Chinese officials or persons linked to U.S. missions harassed The Epoch Times newspaper and New Tang Dynasty Television, media outlets run by Falun Gong practitioners in the United States.

Chen, his wife and their daughter were granted permanent residence in Australia on July 8. He has said China kidnaps critics and he could be jailed or killed if he returned home.

The Russia government has approved a plan to make people more patriotic.

The $17m programme will urge youths to mark military victories, and will fund the re-introduction of military-style games in schools.

There will also be healthy lessons in the curious subject of "correct reproductive behaviour" - Kremlin-speak for patriotic sex education.

Boosting patriotism is one of President Vladimir Putin's priorities but it is unclear if the move will achieve that.

The Soviet Union may have been short on freedom and democracy, but the one thing it had plenty of was patriotism.

Now, though, the Russian government has decided to restore lost pride with something very Soviet - a five-year plan.

Bearing the grand title The State Programme for the Patriotic Education of Citizens, it quadruples government spending on patriotic projects.

There will be more flags, more CDs with the national anthem, more computer games celebrating the might of the Russian army.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Most of people do not know whether this is April 1st joke or lunatics have taken Kremlin. This kind of nonsense didn't work even during Stalin reign of terror. What might of Russian army? What is the last country they conquered since WWII when America gave them 13 billion dollars and massive supplies to fight against Germany. Who is afraid of Russian army abroad today? Made in Russia label stands for garbage that no one wants to buy. There were many patriotic acts of Putin administration like export of 50,000 Russian women to work as slave prostitutes in China, soldier sellout as slaves for $5 to work for mafia and corrupt army generals, sellout of kids' organs, assassinations of thousands of liberal politicians, independent journalists and business entrepreneurs. Thousands of young men are brutally murdered in Russian army every year and yet people are supposed to be patriotic to support barbaric, rapist and murdering army. Just remember what have they done in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Wanna be a patriot? Then put lunatics back to the asylum, don't let them ruin your country anymore.

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Slobodan Milosevic's paramilitary commander, his secret police chief and five others were convicted and sentenced Monday for the 2000 killing of a former Serbian president who was Milosevic's political rival.

The Special Court in Belgrade sentenced the former paramilitary commander, Milorad Lukovic, to the maximum 40 years in prison for the murder of former President Ivan Stambolic and for a failed attempt to assassinate Vuk Draskovic, an opposition leader at the time and now Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister.

Rade Markovic, the secret service chief under Milosevic, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Five other hitmen were handed sentences ranging from 15 to 40 years in the high-profile trial that lasted more than a year. All already are serving prison terms for separate convictions.

Lukovic saluted military-style as the verdict was read; Markovic shook his head.

Stambolic, Serbia's leader until Milosevic displaced him as president in 1988, was kidnapped in August 2000 while jogging in Belgrade. He was taken to a forest in northern Serbia, killed with a shot to the back of the head and then dumped in a shallow, lime-covered pit, chief Judge Dragoljub Albijanic said.

The judge said Milosevic ordered Stambolic and Draskovic killed because he believed they threatened his grip on power. The order came just months before Milosevic was ousted in a popular revolt in October 2000.

Draskovic was targeted twice — once in 1999, when four of his top associates were killed in an orchestrated car crash and again at the coastal Montenegrin town of Budva in June 2000.

Lukovic was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the car crash, while Markovic received a 10-year sentence.

Draskovic said Monday that the court ruling proved that "Milosevic was the supreme commander of the terrorist regime who ordered the killing of his political opponents."

Milosevic was also indicted in connection with the Stambolic killing, but his trial was postponed until the end of a separate trial on war crimes charges at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia condemned the sentencing, saying Monday it was the result of "political pressure on the court, not a case of proven guilt."

Also Monday, in The Hague, Netherlands, an appeals bench at the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Monday upheld a 13-year prison sentence against Milan Babic, the wartime leader of Croatia's rebellious Serbs.

Babic, who confessed to a single count of crimes against humanity in a plea agreement with prosecutors, had contested the sentence passed by trial judges a year ago. The five-member appeals panel ruled that the punishment was justified.

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - A senator's remark in Congress that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is an idiot or corrupt on Thursday set off tempers and halted a congressional probe into a scandal threatening the government.

Sen. Arthur Virgilio was referring to the unfolding corruption scandal in which Lula's Workers' Party is said to have bribed lawmakers of other parties in Congress to push through government measures.

``We are being governed by at least an idiot,'' said Virgilio, leader of the opposition PSDB party in the Senate.

``Enough of this story that Lula didn't know of things. I am not a member of this corrupt government. In the best of hypotheses, he is an idiot. In the worst of hypotheses, he is corrupt,'' he said from the podium before a plenary session of Congress.

Virgilio, who is not a member of the investigating panel, triggered a shouting match in the inquiry room next to the Senate floor. The chaos led inquiry chairman Sen. Delcidio Amaral to halt the probe for the day.

Lula has so far avoided being swept up by a whirlwind of accusations from the media and the congressional inquiry that have already forced Lula's right-hand-man, Cabinet Chief Jose Dirceu and several other Workers' Party leaders to resign or step down.

In an opinion poll released earlier this week, Lula's public approval rating rose slightly since the scandal broke last month.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban dissidents scuffled with supporters of President Fidel Castro on Wednesday as the demonstrators commemorated the deadly 1994 sinking of a tugboat packed with people trying to flee the country.

The 19 demonstrators marched to Havana's Malecon sea wall with posters of about 40 people, many of them children, who drowned when the stolen tug was rammed by Cuban coast guard gunboats.

The dissidents threw white flowers into the sea and chanted ``Justice! Liberty!'' but were quickly surrounded and outnumbered by angry supporters of Cuba's Communist government. The Castro supporters pushed and kicked them, shouting ``Fidel, Fidel, this street belongs to Fidel,'' and forced the dissidents to disperse.

Two people, including the leader of the dissident group, Yusimi Jil Portal, were arrested on their way to the protest, dissident Emilio Leiva said.

Survivors of the 1994 tragedy said coast guard boats sprayed the tug with jets of water and rammed it several times until it sank seven miles offshore.

``They wanted to emigrate to the United States because of the extreme poverty that Castro has led the country to,'' Leiva said.

Cuban authorities maintain the sinking was an accident and blame the United States for encouraging Cubans to leave the island illegally by offering almost automatic residence as political refugees.

One Old Havana resident, watching the demonstrators go by, said he supported their protest.

``I want to go to another country. If they sent a ship many would want to leave,'' said Nestor, a janitor who earns $10 a month.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, a group of central Havana residents took to the street to complain about recent power outages that have left Cuban cities without electricity for hours, witnesses said.

The demonstrators shouted ``Down with Fidel'' and were soon surrounded by government supporters who beat them with sticks, a witness said.

Editor's commentary: It seems that Fidel owns streets in Cuba as well. No one in capitalism can own public streets but in Castro's Cuba that is reality. Before you go to the street you have to call Fidel and ask for permission to walk HIS streets. People may turn to balooning in the future in order to leave their homes probably also owned by Fidel as well. Those who earn $10 a month have nothing to lose by swimming through sharks to escape Caribean Alcatraz. It took only one successful escape from Alcatraz to make it closed forever but warden Castro has no intention of shutting it down even if ten million Cubans escape their island prison. Moscow installed warden Castro is efficient as Soviet economy.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday of opposing his left-wing rule and being ``out of touch with reality'' after they questioned his populist policies.

The firebrand nationalist has clashed publicly in the past with Catholic Church leaders he accuses of siding with the rich against his self-styled ``revolution'' in Venezuela, which he says is using the country's oil wealth to help the poor.

Chavez said he had complained this week about the attitude of local bishops to Apostolic Nuncio Monsignor Giacinto Berloco, who presented his credentials as the new Vatican ambassador to the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

``I said to him, look Monsignor, I am Catholic Christian, and I find it difficult to understand the behavior of the Catholic Church elite in Venezuela,'' Chavez said angrily.

``The Catholic hierarchy never gets tired of attacking this government, this revolution,'' he said during a ceremony in Caracas to distribute housing contracts.

It was Chavez's strongest attack against local Catholic Church leaders since Pope Benedict was appointed following the death of Pope John Paul in April.

The latest outburst followed a statement Tuesday from the Venezuelan bishops in which, while welcoming government anti-poverty policies, they expressed fears these were being corrupted by ``political clientelism and misuse of funds.''

``One can still hear the clamor of so many people who are deprived of the most basic rights of food, health, housing, work and public services,'' the bishops said.

'WARLIKE DISCOURSE'

They also expressed concern that opponents of the government had been detained ``out of revenge and to punish dissidence.''

The bishops criticized an increasing ``warlike discourse and militarization'' in Venezuela, an apparent reference to Chavez's moves to arm the nation against what he says is the threat of an attack by the United States. Washington denies any threat.

Chavez said the bishops were wrong and ``out of touch with reality.''

``There has been no other government in Venezuela, and I say this with all humility, that has been closer ... to the mandate of Christ,'' he said.

Leading bishops have frequently accused the Venezuelan leader of stirring up divisive political and social conflicts in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Some have even accused him of trying to introduce an atheistic communist ideology they say threatens traditional Catholic teaching.

Chavez, who often quotes from the scriptures and sometimes brandishes a miniature crucifix during his fiery speeches, has described his high-ranking Catholic critics as ``a tumor'' and ``devils in cassocks.''

The president, who vows to convert Venezuela from capitalism to ``a new socialism,'' says his government's programs to provide free health, education and job training for the poor are in line with Christian teaching.

``Socialism is the theory of Christ ... Love one another,'' Chavez said.

``That's the reality, but these bishops refuse to accept it ... May God forgive them,'' he added.

Editor's commentary: Commie Messiah Chavez has become a follower of John Kerry, Catholic preaching socialism. It is nice that Chavez is offering free job training but how about offering jobs instead? We all know that free health and education contradict laws of physics and nature. What Chavez is offering is similar to Castro's offer to Cubans and that is $10 a month and fake low quality free health and education through communist indoctrination. People prefer $1,000 a month and health plan instead. Public education is affordable and provided to all in most developed countries of the world. God may forgive them but for sure won't forgive you for calling his name in vain and preaching lies and blasphemy.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Prosecutors said Monday they have opened a criminal investigation of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov -- the latest critic of President Vladimir Putin to face legal trouble.

Kasyanov was under investigation for fraud and abuse of office over the legality of a real estate transaction, according to the press service of the general prosecutor's office.

Fired by Putin last year, Kasyanov has emerged as a harsh critic of his former boss and has not ruled out running in the 2008 presidential election. Putin is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

Kasyanov denied any wrongdoing through his spokeswoman, Tatyana Razbash, saying he had never taken part in any improper commercial deals.

The Interfax news agency, citing an unidentified source, reported that prosecutors had opened an inquiry after a pro-Kremlin parliamentary deputy and investigative journalist alleged Kasyanov had acquired lucrative state-owned real estate through front firms on his last day in office.

The prosecutor general's office said it opened its investigation after receiving a letter from the pro-Kremlin lawmaker, Alexander Khinshtein, on July 1. It gave no further details of the complaint but said that investigators had confiscated all documents relating to Kasyanov's real estate deal.

Meanwhile, a federal environmental official said inspectors were looking into whether environmental regulations had been violated in the region west of Moscow where Kasyanov's property is located. Oleg Mitvol, of the Federal Nature Monitoring Service, suggested that prime real estate in the region may have been purchased for prices substantially under market values, Interfax reported.

The head of the liberal opposition Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, denounced the investigation as ''politically motivated,'' Interfax reported.

The divided opposition has struggled to find a figure capable of rallying broad support to challenge an eventual Kremlin-nominated successor to Putin, and some commentators have suggested that Kasyanov could play such a role.

The charge against Kasyanov -- causing material damage through deceit or abuse of trust -- carries a maximum five-year jail term.

Kasyanov served in the Soviet-era state planning agency Gosplan during the 1980s and steadily rose through economic and financial posts after the Soviet collapse. As deputy finance minister in 1996, he worked out a deal for repaying debts Russia inherited from the Soviet Union.

Two years later, he played a key role in efforts to restore Russia's credibility after the government defaulted on foreign debt and the ruble plunged.

But he was dogged by media allegations of corruption early in his career, earning the nickname ''Misha 2 Percent.'' He shook off that negative image by championing liberal reforms and presiding over an economic boom.

Kasyanov was the last representative of former President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle to have been in Putin's Cabinet, and he had defended the country's much-maligned tycoons -- including Yukos oil company founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence on tax evasion and other charges widely seen as politically driven.

''He's now enemy No. 2 after Khodorkovsky,'' said Boris Nemtsov, head of the Union of Right Forces, in comments on Russian television station NTV.

Kasyanov runs a consulting business that advises organizations and regions on improving the investment climate and helps Western and Russian investors manage their risks.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Former Philippine leader Corazon Aquino called on the country's leader to resign, saying Monday that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo could no longer stay in office amid allegations she rigged last year's election.

Opposition groups pressed ahead in their campaign to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, promising to send masses of activists into the streets.

The country's influential Roman Catholic bishops, who had played a role in the toppling of two previous Philippine leaders, stopped short of calling for Arroyo to resign.

But the president was buffeted anew Monday when Aquino -- an ally of Arroyo who is regarded by many as a moral icon who restored democracy in 1986 -- repeated her call for Arroyo's resignation.

Aquino said the monthlong political crisis over allegations that Arroyo rigged last year's election was ''crippling the government and endangering the nation.''

Arroyo has apologized for a ''lapse in judgment'' in talking to an election official before she was declared winner of the May 2004 elections, but has denied any wrongdoing.

The 58-year-old president has defiantly refused to resign and challenged the opposition to file an impeachment case against her in Congress, where her coalition holds majorities in both houses.

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- Women wept Monday as they finally buried husbands and sons 10 years after Europe's worst massacre since World War II -- funerals made possible by the excavation of mass graves of victims killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

An extraordinary gathering of 30,000 people -- including the president of Serbia -- came to Srebrenica to mark the anniversary and honor the dead at a memorial cemetery across from an abandoned car battery factory that was the wartime base for Dutch U.N. soldiers.

The Dutch were supposed to protect Srebrenica -- a designated U.N. safe zone-- from Serb attacks during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. But outmanned and outgunned, the Dutch mission watched as Srebrenica's men and boys were separated from the women and led away, to be slain and dumped into shallow graves that are still being discovered a decade later.

To the sound of Muslim prayers echoing across a sprawling green valley, family members wandered among 610 caskets of the most recently identified victims of the July 11, 1995, massacre, in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.

After a religious service, the caskets were passed from hand to hand toward the graves and buried beside 1,330 existing graves. The sound of dirt striking the coffins and the weeping of women mingled with a voice reading the names of victims.

Fatima Budic huddled Monday over the coffin of her 14-year-old son Velija before the burial, alone in her grief.

''They killed my entire life and the only thing I want now is to see the guilty ones pay for it,'' sobbed Budic. Her husband and 16-year-old son have never been found.

World leaders offered apologies Monday for the inaction of the international community. They called for the arrest of the top war crimes fugitives, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic, and their extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

''It is the shame of the international community that this evil took place under our noses,'' British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. ''I bitterly regret this and I'm deeply sorry for it.''

On a fence, families of the victims hung a huge banner with their own count of the dead. It read: ''Europe's shame -- genocide. 8,106 murdered in Srebrenica.''

The ceremony opened with the Bosnian anthem and the raising of the Bosnian flag followed by a choral performance of ''Srebrenica Inferno,'' a song written for the anniversary that tells of a dead boy speaking to survivors.

''Mother, sister, I can't find you, where are you?'' the choir sang, as women in the crowd wept.

''The crimes that were committed here were not simply murders,'' said Theodor Meron, president of the U.N. war crimes court. ''They were targeted at a particular human group with the intent to destroy it. They were so heinous that they warrant the gravest of labels: Genocide.''

There was no visible presence of Bosnian Serbs at Monday's service, although Bosnian television aired it live.

It was also carried live in Serbia, which confronted the horrors of Srebrenica for the first time only recently when a videotape showing the slaying of six men and boys in Srebrenica shocked residents, who had been largely uninformed about atrocities committed by Bosnian Serb troops.

Serbia's President Boris Tadic attended the service -- a significant gesture given Serbia's political and military backing of the Bosnian Serbs during the war. He did not speak, but said earlier that his gesture should be considered an act of remorse to Srebrenica's Muslims. He has also pledged to seek Mladic's arrest.

In the nearby hamlet of Bratunac, Bosnian Serbs defended the actions of their troops and former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic -- considered the main strategist of the Serb wartime offensive.

''The lavish Srebrenica commemorations are a major international plot against the Serbs,'' said Milan Baljic, a former Bosnian Serb soldier. ''Why does no one care about our dead? They killed us, we killed them. So, what's the difference?''

''Mladic and Karadzic are our heroes, and no one can do anything about it,'' Baljic said.

International officials said the two most-wanted war crimes fugitives belong at the U.N. tribunal. Milosevic is on trial before the court.

''The evil who committed those crimes still lurks here on those hills,'' said the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper. ''It must be destroyed.''

Richard Holbrooke, architect of Bosnia's U.S.-sponsored 1995 peace agreement said justice and reconciliation between Serbs and Muslims cannot be complete without Mladic's and Karadzic's arrest.

''The Iraqi people helped Americans capture Saddam Hussein,'' Holbrooke said. ''Serbs are still sheltering Mladic and Karadzic.''

Mladic, who is believed to be hiding in Serbia, personally commanded the Srebrenica onslaught, saying at the time that the town's capture was ''my gift to the Serb nation'' and revenge for the 500-year Turkish occupation of Serbia that started in the 14th century.

Some 250,000 people were killed in the war between Bosnian Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs, with the Srebrenica massacre becoming a symbol of the bloodshed's brutality. About 16,500 bodies have been exhumed from more than 300 mass graves throughout the country.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- The leader of Brazil's governing Workers Party stepped down on Saturday, the third ally of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to resign this week amid charges of buying votes in Congress.

Jose Genoino, Silva's friend, has been the party's president for the 2 1/2 years. His replacement was not immediately announced.

''The party is going through a difficult moment right now. It's time it reorganizes itself,'' Genoino said at a press conference during a party committee meeting to address the scandal. ''And I can't stand in the way as the party begins this process.''

Earlier in the week, the party's treasurer and secretary general stepped down after allegations that they were involved in paying monthly bribes of up to $12,600 to congressmen in exchange for their votes on key legislation.

Last month, Silva's chief of staff resigned following accusations that he approved the alleged payoffs.

All of them have vehemently denied the allegations.

Genoino was implicated in the scandal after bank records were shown to link him to an advertising executive who was accused by lawmaker Roberto Jefferson of making the payoffs.

The scandal began when Jefferson, of the center-right Brazilian Labor Party, accused the government of paying the monthly bribes. Investigators also have linked cash withdrawals with the dates of important votes in Congress.

Jefferson has said Silva, Brazil's first elected leftist president, was not involved in the scandal.

Three members of anarchist group Red Brigades have been given life sentences over the murder of an Italian government adviser in Rome in 1999.

Nadia Desdemona Lioce, Marco Mezzasalma and Roberto Morandi were convicted of killing Massimo D'Antona near his home.

The Red Brigades-Communist Combatant Party, an offshoot of the group that carried out deadly bombings in the 1970s and 1980s, claimed the killing.

The three defendants had already been jailed for life.

They were sentenced in June - along with two other alleged Red Brigades members - for the murder of another government adviser, Marco Biagi, in the northern city of Bologna in March 2002.

Full story here.

MANILA (Reuters) - Embattled Philippine President Glorida Macapagal Arroyo looked further isolated on Friday after key members of her sacked cabinet called on her to hand power to Vice President Noli de Castro.

Police raised their alert level in Manila to maximum on Friday and General Efren Abu, the military's chief of staff, ordered troops not to intervene in the deepening political crisis at a hastily called meeting of all senior commanders.

The peso fell close to its historic low against the dollar but stocks rose, as analysts said any change in the leadership was likely to be peaceful.

``This could be the tipping point,'' said Tom Green, executive director of risk consultancy Pacific Strategies & Assessments, of the day's dramatic developments. ``We haven't seen the reaction on the street but still this is a pretty good shove.''

The Liberal Party, a government supporter, also said it was time for Arroyo to go.

De Castro, the subject of speculation he would replace the president, said she should be given time to think.

Fighting for survival, Arroyo said on Thursday evening she was not stepping down but had asked her cabinet to resign to allow for a reshuffle.

She has been under mounting pressure to quit over allegations she cheated in the 2004 presidential election and that members of her family took payoffs from illegal gambling.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, speaking for eight cabinet members, said Arroyo's surprise announcement pre-empted their plans to quit over decisions that seemed to show she was more concerned about political survival than fiscal reforms.

There has been speculation Arroyo leaned on the Supreme Court, as it considered an opposition petition last week, to freeze a tax package that is at the heart of her economic reforms as a way to defuse public anger about rising prices.

``The opposition filed it and she exploited it,'' one source close to the president told Reuters.

Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin and Trade Secretary Juan Santos, as well as the heads of the tax and customs agencies, were among those who announced their resignations at the news conference and endorsed the call on Arroyo to step down.

``POISON POLITICS''

The peso weakened as far as 56.44 to the dollar on Friday -- just a shade from its record low of 56.45 -- before it recovered to 56.25/31 by the midday break.

But stocks closed 1.57 percent higher.

``Some investors are betting that the inevitable is about to happen,'' said Astro del Castillo, managing director at First Grade Holdings in Manila. ``There are rumors of a smooth transition over the weekend.''

Other analysts agreed that Arroyo appeared to be in deep trouble but said she could survive for a matter of weeks.

``More pressing and immediate concerns confront our people today than poisoned politics or infirmities in our constitution,'' Purisima said with tears in his eyes.

``The longer the president stays in office, under a cloud of doubt and distrust, and with her style of decision-making, the greater the damage on the economy.''

Other secretaries would submit ``courtesy resignations'' at a cabinet meeting later on Friday, Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

``Let's give President Arroyo a chance to think and decide for the nation,'' Vice President de Castro said in a statement. ``I will focus my energy on uplifting our poor countrymen.''

Some analysts said financial markets would have liked Purisima and the other main economic managers to stay on for now to keep Arroyo's reform agenda moving to improve weak revenue collection and cut debt of nearly $70 billion.

``Even a swift Arroyo resignation would be unlikely to settle matters as Vice President de Castro has questionable support among the elite,'' JPMorgan research head David Fernandez said in a note to clients.

Investors were already rattled by weeks of political crisis over the allegations and the court freeze on the tax package.

``FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE''

``It is simply the truth that the political system that I am part of has degenerated to the point that it needs fundamental change,'' Arroyo said on live radio and television on Thursday.

Arroyo, whose second term is due to run until 2010, has made no secret of plans to change the two-chamber congressional system to a single parliament to speed up passage of laws.

Arroyo apologized last week for a ``lapse in judgment'' for talking to an election official during vote-counting last year but denied rigging the results.

Despite opposition attempts to whip up rage against Arroyo, protests have been relatively small. Her rivals lack a unifying leader and have offered few ideas to develop the economy.

But some of the business groups, middle-class professionals and Catholic church leaders who form Arroyo's support base have begun to pull back.

PALE, Bosnia (Reuters) - NATO snatched the son of Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic from his home on Thursday hoping he could lead them to his father, wanted for orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre 10 years ago this month.

Witnesses in Pale, Karadzic's wartime stronghold near Sarajevo where his wife, son and daughter live, said NATO soldiers set up a meeting with Aleksandar 'Sasa' Karadzic, then handcuffed him and took him away by helicopter.

``They took Sasa from his flat. He was handcuffed and wore a flak-jacket. They put him in a black jeep and then put a hood over his head,'' grocer Vesna Gutalj told Reuters television.

Aleksandar's sister, Sonja Karadzic Jovicevic, told Reuters NATO had set up a meeting with Sasa to return documents seized in May during a raid on the apartment of his father-in-law, where he lives with his wife and two children.

NATO soldiers asked other family members to leave the room and when his father-in-law entered a few minutes later it was empty, she said. Witnesses said they saw the soldiers put Sasa onto a helicopter at a nearby playground.

ANNIVERSARY ON MONDAY

The arrest comes a few days before the July 11 anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, for which Karadzic and his wartime military chief Ratko Mladic are charged with genocide by the U.N. court.

``Aleksandar Karadzic is suspected of rendering support to an ... indicted war criminal, and may have information vital to the goal of locating indicted war criminals or identifying their supporters,'' NATO said in a statement.

Sonja Karadzic called it a ``kidnapping,'' part of constant pressure on the family, and said it was probably related to the 10th anniversary of the ``Srebrenica events.''

``But they know better than us that we have not had contact with Radovan Karadzic for years, since they follow and tap our phones all the time,'' she added. ``The family is the weakest link in his support network.''

NATO raided the homes of Karadzic's family in May searching for information. A NATO official told Reuters last week the alliance did not know where Karadzic was.

Karadzic and Mladic are also charged with the wartime siege of Sarajevo in which 10,000 people were killed. Some 200,000 people died in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, mostly Bosnian Muslims.

Karadzic went underground in 1997. Mladic lived discreetly in Belgrade until 2002 then vanished. The West says they are both protected by hardline Serb nationalists in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva replaced three ministers on Wednesday in a shake-up widely seen as an effort to counter the effects of a corruption scandal by bringing more allies into government.

The awaited changes were the first step of a cabinet reshuffling that could improve the government's chances of riding out its worst crisis as well as Lula's 2006 re-election bid in the world's fourth largest democracy.

Lula's spokesman, Andre Singer, gave reporters the names of the new mines and energy, health and communications ministers -- all from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), and said the shake-up is not over.

``The president will announce new ministerial changes on Friday,'' he said.

Further cabinet changes could include the political coordination and cities portfolios, analysts said.

Lula's government has been under pressure since last month when a lawmaker from a small allied party accused the ruling Workers' Party of paying some lawmakers for support in Congress for its policies.

The bribe-for-votes scandal has prompted Cabinet chief Jose Dirceu's resignation and two senior officials from the Workers' Party, including its treasurer, stepped down this week. All deny the accusations.

The PMDB -- Brazil's largest party -- chose two of its lawmakers to occupy the communications and health ministries, and federal electricity firm Eletrobras' president Silas Rondeau to take over at the mines and energy ministry.

But in a sign of the difficulties Lula has had in bringing the PMDB closer, its president and state governors issued a statement threatening to expel the three new ministers from the party for joining the government. The party has long been split between a pro- and an anti-government wing.

To bolster his government's clout in Congress, which has become consumed by a series of investigations to probe the scandal, Lula offered the PMDB more cabinet posts and a say in policies in return for support in Congress.

OTHER PARTIES' SUPPORT

The incoming ministers will replace one outgoing PMDB minister and two from the Workers' Party.

Because the Workers' Party alone does not have a majority in Congress, the government constantly needs support from other parties to pass its policies. Ministers can have hefty clout with legislators from their same parties, bringing valuable Congressional support.

Analysts said the reshuffle was long overdue for the government.

``The shake-up was intended to build a majority in Congress. Now the government could be threatened by an impeachment vote and it needs more votes,'' said political analyst Luciano Dias.

Financial markets have been unnerved by the crisis. Investors fear it could further undermine the government's chances of passing economic reforms, which have been at a standstill for months in Congress.

Stocks and the local currency fell again on Wednesday, mostly on concerns over Congressional testimony by businessman Marcos Valerio, who is at the center of the bribery scandal. Stocks have fallen 2.1 percent and the currency, the real, has shed 2.6 percent so far this month, mainly due to the crisis.

``The ministerial changes will not put out the crisis,'' said political analyst Carlos Lopes of the SantaFe Ideias consultancy. ``They may represent a breadth of fresh air, oxygen for the cabinet, but this will be a long crisis.''

Valerio has been accused of involvement in the scheme to pay off lawmakers by the Workers' Party but he denied any participation on Wednesday in Congress.

Lula reached agreement with the PMDB just in time for his departure on Wednesday to Scotland for a G8 summit.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine election commissioner said he did not conspire with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to rig the 2004 presidential election, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

But with the country consumed by ``Gloriagate,'' military intelligence officials were asked on Wednesday to testify at a House of Representatives inquiry into a taped conversation between Arroyo and Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

The commissioner said he talked to opposition politicians as well as Arroyo as ballots were being counted in the May, 2004 election that the president won by more than 1 million votes.

Recordings of that conversation produced by Arroyo's rivals to bolster their claims of election cheating had been edited, Garcillano said.

``Tell the people that the conversations that have publicly come out of the tapes are untrue. Many of the conversations were doctored,'' he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.

Weeks of political turmoil, combined with a Supreme Court freeze on Friday on one of Arroyo's key economic reforms, have put a cloud over Philippine financial markets. Traders said the central bank has been defending the peso in recent days.

Rep. Roilo Golez, head of the House defense committee, said the military agents were invited to testify before the congressional ``wiretapping inquiry'' because their voices were apparently heard on the tapes.

WINNERS AND CHEATED

The agents were heard discussing cases of vote-buying, kidnapping, and other election irregularities, he said on ABS-CBN television.

Garcillano, who has been out of public view for at least two weeks, said none of the candidates asked for favors but had voiced concerns about possible fraud in the election.

Juan Ponce Enrile, an opposition senator and close ally of ousted presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, said on Tuesday he had called other election officials to ask that his votes be counted properly, but he denied doing anything wrong.

The comments reflect an adage of Philippine politics: There are no losers, only winners and those who were cheated.

Candidates are not prohibited from talking to election officials in one of Asia's more vibrant and unruly democracies.

But the opposition, calling on Arroyo to quit as it also levels allegations of corruption against members of her family, has said the conversations were improper for a president.

Arroyo apologized to the nation last week for a ``lapse in judgment'' in talking to Garcillano and said her husband would go into exile to allow her to rule effectively.

MIKE FLIES TO EXILE

On Wednesday, Jose Miguel ``Mike'' Arroyo flew to Los Angeles via Hong Kong to begin his banishment.

Arroyo, whose second term ends in 2010, is facing the worst crisis of her four-year presidency as some of the business groups, middle-class professionals and Catholic church leaders who form her support base begin to pull back.

Filipinos are angry about rising prices and pervasive graft but seem wary of the economic and social costs of more upheaval after ``people power'' uprisings against Marcos in 1986 and Estrada in 2001.

There also have been a dozen coup attempts in the last 19 years involving members of the military.

Despite opposition attempts to whip up rage against Arroyo, street protests have been relatively small.

Legally ousting her is also problematic.

A second impeachment complaint against the president on Tuesday was actually endorsed by an Arroyo ally, adding to speculation she aims to blunt opposition attacks by defeating the motions through her majorities in both houses of Congress.

The president's rivals also lack a unifying leader and have offered few policy alternatives to cut debt and develop the economy.

The markets steadied on Wednesday with the peso 1 percent firmer on the day and stocks virtually unchanged after tumbling more than 4 percent on Tuesday.

``Much bad news has been priced in at this point,'' said ING Bank, which said it is maintaining a buy recommendation on Philippine sovereign bonds.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether Iran's president-elect was involved in the 1989 assassination of a Kurdish leader in Vienna, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry spokesman confirmed that prosecutors had started a probe by asking the ministry's anti-terrorism task force to investigate the case, but declined to provide any details.

``The prosecutor's office has made the request,'' ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said.

The state prosecutor's office also confirmed that it was reopening the unsolved murder case.

Tehran reacted angrily, saying the Foreign Ministry summoned the Austrian ambassador to demand an explanation.

Austrian Green Party security spokesman Peter Pilz told a news conference there was ``credible evidence'' that Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was involved in the 1989 assassination of Iranian exile Kurdish opposition leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou and two other Kurdish politicians in Vienna.

``Yesterday the state prosecutor's office asked the Anti-Terrorism Task Force to begin an investigation into the allegations about the 1989 triple murder,'' Pilz told reporters.

In addition to Ahmadinejad, who was a senior member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards at the time of the killings, Pilz said former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was at the center of the newly reopened investigation.

Pilz said it was up to the prosecutor's office to decide whether to request that Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad be questioned.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi denied the accusation, saying it came out of ``Zionist circles.''

``It is a baseless and funny accusation. We summoned the Austrian ambassador on Tuesday to give some explanation about it,'' he said.

``It would be better if Austrian officials thought about the two countries' good relations instead of becoming a tool in the hands of those who want to create tension,'' Asefi said.

ANTI-TERRORISM FORCE

Pilz said his accusation was based on information he received from an Iranian journalist living in France who Pilz calls only ``Witness D.'' Pilz gave this information to the Interior Ministry and the Anti-Terrorism Task Force, which then forwarded it to the state prosecutor's office for evaluation.

``I cannot personally say whether the allegations of Witness D are true, but I can say that they are credible,'' Pilz said.

Ernst Kloiber, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said they would like to interview Witness D.

Witness D's information came from one of the alleged gunmen, who contacted Witness D in 2001 but later drowned, Pilz said.

One of the reasons that Witness D appeared credible is that he knows details that only someone with access to Austrian investigators' classified files could know, he said.

Pilz said Witness D had no ties to any exiled Iranian political groups in France.

Many members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its militant wing, the People's Mujahideen Organization, are based in Paris. Both oppose Iran's Islamic government.

Several former hostages who were held by Iranian militants after the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy have accused Ahmadinejad of taking part in the 444-day hostage drama which led Washington to break ties with Tehran.

The president-elect's office and several hostage-takers have denied Ahmadinejad helped storm the embassy. Pilz said that Witness D had no information to support the allegations that Ahmadinejad was involved in the U.S. hostage-taking.

BERLIN (Reuters) - To jeers from protesters, demolition crews on Tuesday began uprooting hundreds of crosses from the site of former Checkpoint Charlie set up to commemorate victims killed trying to escape from communist East Germany.

In an effort to stop the unofficial memorial being cleared, several protesters chained themselves to the wooden crosses from the place where the legendary Cold War checkpoint once stood on the line separating East and West Berlin. Police stood by.

A German court ruled in April the crosses had to go to make way for a building planned by a bank.

An order to remove the crosses and a 200-meterstretch of replica wall expired some time ago but a court official finally ordered the clearance to take place on Tuesday.

German politicians and media have criticized the private exhibit, which has drawn throngs of communist-era memorabilia merchants, as tacky, saying it has turned the area into a tourist ``Disneyland.''

Supporters of the exhibit point out there is no other major memorial to one of the Cold War's most famous landmarks.

The German capital has an uncomfortable history of dissent and delay over commemorative sites, including the recently opened Holocaust memorial. Critics have decried Berlin's failure to create a more prominent public monument to the Wall.

Maria Nooke, who runs the official Berlin Wall Documentation Center, said the crosses were politically motivated and amateur.

``Berlin needs a more authentic and professional treatment of the Wall's history,'' she told Reuters.

Berlin's culture minister Thomas Flierl hoped to establish Nooke's museum as the site of a future, official commemoration to the 28-year long division of the city.

But Alexandra Hildebrandt, head of the nearby Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, who set up the private exhibition, said Flierl simply wanted to get rid of the crosses because he once belonged to the East German government.

``Of course he doesn't like what's here,'' she said.

She was supported by Hubertus Knabe, director of a Berlin museum about East Germany's infamous secret police, the Stasi. He told Monday's edition of Die Welt newspaper that the Berlin Wall needed a memorial.

``As long as there is nothing better, this memorial should stay,'' he said.

The Berlin Wall was built by communist East Germany in 1961 to stop a growing exodus to the West. But thousands still escaped past the cement and barbed wire barrier.

Checkpoint Charlie was the set up by the Americans also in 1961 and was the place where tourists and diplomats crossed to and from the Soviet sector of the divided city.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- A top official of the ruling Workers' Party stepped down Tuesday, the second ally of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to resign this week amid new allegations regarding a bribes-for-votes scandal.

Delubio Soares, treasurer of Silva's Workers' Party, said his bank, telephone and tax records would be released to congressional investigators. His resignation came after that of the party's secretary general Silvio Pereira, who also promised to make the records available.

Soares said in a statement Tuesday that he requested his leave to defend himself against charges he had helped bribe lawmakers of other parties to vote with the Workers' Party to pass legislation.

Soares has been implicated in the scandal since it broke out in early June, amid accusations that the government was paying the lawmakers monthly bribes of $13,000 in exchange for votes.

Last month, the president's chief of staff resigned amid accusations that he approved the payoffs.

Silva, overwhelmed by allegations of corruption involving leaders of his Workers Party, would be considering not to seek re-election, in a move that would bring to an end the government he started 30 months ago amid hopes of sweeping changes in Latin America's biggest country.

The scandal began when Roberto Jefferson of center-right Brazilian Labor Party accused the government of paying the monthly bribes. Investigators also have linked cash withdrawals with the dates of important votes in Congress.

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - A new twist in Brazil's growing bribery scandal may topple the powerful head of the ruling Workers' Party and upset President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's efforts to win political support with a government reshuffle.

Some local media said Workers' Party (PT) president Jose Genoino's departure was almost certain after Veja magazine reported over the weekend that party treasurer Delubio Soares received a loan from an entrepreneur allegedly involved in a bribes-for-votes scandal, and Genoino was a guarantor of the loan.

``Genoino and Delubio represent the leadership of the majority camp inside the PT who brought the party to power in 2002, so if Genoino steps down it generates an internal crisis with that camp possibly losing command,'' political analyst Christopher Garman of the Eurasia group consultancy said on Monday.

The Workers' Party has been under fire since June when the head of a small party allied to the government accused it of making cash payments to some legislators to secure their support in Congress.

``What it might lead to is an eventual schism between Lula's government and the rest of the PT, where many criticize the government,'' Garman added, noting that the party had an election of its leadership scheduled for September.

The snowballing scandal has tarnished a corruption-free image the party cultivated for many years while it was in opposition. Investigating the allegations has preoccupied the Congress, stalling economic reforms.

``There is no way the thesis of Lula's complete lack of responsibility (for the scandal) can be maintained and there are evident signs that new accusations will emerge,'' Goes consultants said in a research note, adding that a possible solution could be for Lula not to run for re-election next year.

Lula last week opened a probe into a state energy company and unveiled anti-graft measures that make it easier to investigate and imprison corrupt public officials.

The Workers' Party denies the allegations, but Lula's Cabinet chief Jose Dirceu had to resign last month.

Lula is trying to woo allied parties closer to the government in an effort to increase his power in Congress.

A majority of lawmakers from the leading Brazilian Democratic Movement Party said last week they would give Lula's government full support in return for Cabinet posts promised by Lula earlier and a say in public policies.

Government sources said Lula is likely to give four ministries to that party and another portfolio to a nonpolitical appointment, possibly the head of Rio de Janeiro state industry federation, Eduardo Vieira.

The sources said the details of the reshuffle, in which the ruling party is likely to lose five ministries and possibly the presidency of state-run Petrobras oil giant, should be completed by Monday evening or Tuesday. Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles, who is being investigated for tax evasion, may also lose his job.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has called for a return to a state monopoly on vodka production, to cut the many thousands of alcohol-related deaths.

Since the Soviet Union's collapse, hundreds of little-known brands of vodka - Russia's favourite tipple - appeared to meet a $9bn a year market.

Organised crime groups are suspected of being behind a lot of bootlegged poor quality vodka, which is often made from industrial alcohol.

"The best way for us to solve this problem is if we got from the government a decision which would practically move to a monopoly on spirits," Mr Putin said.

The state-owned producer, RosSpirtProm, still accounts for some 50% of Russia's alcohol production.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: We all know that organized crime in Russia is sponsored by the government so this is nothing but a lame excuse to introduce monopoly on alcohol sale. In few years there will be no businesses and markets free of government monopoly just as it was the case during "good" old Stalin's days.