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May 1st, 2001 - All headlines and news are moved from the Home page to this page from now on. News in English and Serbian are entirely different. Serbian news are located under Editorial section and include Serbian independent news agency FONET and Yugoslav state news agency TANJUG. This may change when freedom of press returns to Serbia. Currently, all daily and weekly papers are under heavy government control and there is no reason for getting overwhelmed with government garbage at this point. English news currently consist from BBC headlines and stories from various news agencies.

A ban on handguns in Washington DC has been ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court.

In a 5-4 decision, the justices upheld a lower court ruling striking down the ban. They said individuals had a right to keep handguns for lawful purposes.

It is the first such case considered by the court in decades and is expected to have effects on gun laws across the US. Debate over the exact meaning of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms has raged for years.

The latest ruling says that the constitution "protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home".

The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the ruling is of profound importance, as it enshrines for the first time the individual right to own guns and limits efforts to reduce their role in American life.

Since 1976, the private possession of handguns had been prohibited in the nation's capital, while rifles and shotguns had been required to be locked away or dismantled.

The DC city council argued that the ban was needed to help keep violence and murder rates down.

But the measure was challenged by a security guard, Dick Heller.

He argued that if he was allowed to have a handgun at work, he also had a constitutional right to have one at home.

In March last year, a federal appeals court agreed with Mr Heller that the Second Amendment protected an individual's right to keep and bear arms and that the DC ban was unconstitutional.

The city appealed against that ruling, with the case going to the Supreme Court.

The debate centred on whether the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791, protects an individual's right to possess guns, or simply a collective right for an armed militia.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: You can celebrate this decision with newly restored Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition. San Francisco and Chicago will have to remove ban on possession of handguns thanks to this decision.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbia's Supreme Court sentenced late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's security chief to 40 years in prison Thursday for organizing a deadly attack on a prominent dissident in 1999.

Radomir Markovic was convicted of trying to kill opposition leader Vuk Draskovic in October 1999. Draskovic survived the staged road accident, and later became Serbia's foreign minister, but three of his bodyguards and a party official died in the attack.

Markovic; Milorad Ulemek, a former commander of Serbia's paramilitary police, and two members of his unit were sentenced to 40 years, the maximum allowed under law. Seven other men received sentences of up to 35 years. Two others, both former senior Belgrade police officers who had investigated the crash, were acquitted.

The ruling concludes an eight-year judicial saga. After striking down three decisions by lower courts, the Supreme Court took the unusual step of trying the defendants itself.

Draskovic -- also the target in 2000 of sharpshooters who fired on his home in Montenegro, grazing his ear with a bullet -- said the ruling ''was the only decision possible in view of the evidence presented during the trial.'' He later said ''there is no doubt'' Milosevic ordered him killed.

Defense attorneys criticized the Supreme Court decision.

''This ruling is hypocritical and shameful,'' said Markovic's defense lawyer, Dusan Masic. ''It marks the twilight of Serbian justice, which is controlled by the government.'' He said the defense would look into an appeal.

Ulemek previously was sentenced to two 40-year terms in separate trials. He was convicted of organizing the assassination of Serbia's pro-Western Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003 and the murder of Ivan Stambolic, a former Serbian president who opposed Milosevic's rule.

Milosevic was ousted in October 2000. The ex-president later was extradited to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where he died in 2006.

In a related development, the attorney for former a Bosnian Serb police chief, Stojan Zupljanin, said he would appeal a court order to extradite him to The Hague.

Zupljanin was arrested near Belgrade last week. His lawyer Igor Pantelic said the appeal would be lodged Thursday.

The U.N. court indicted Zupljanin for commanding prison camps where thousands of Muslims and Croats were killed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

LONDON - More than 1,000 protesters detained during anti-government riots in Tibet three months ago have not been accounted for, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Amnesty International said a quarter of about 4,000 people detained by police during the riots in Tibet in March are unaccounted for. The others have been either released or placed under formal arrest.

The Olympic torch will pass through the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on Saturday, and Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, said the event should draw attention to the missing and those in prison.

"There is very little information coming out of Tibet, but the information we have paints a dire picture of arbitrary detentions and abuse of detainees," he said. "With the torch relay about to enter Tibetan areas, this should be an opportunity to shine some light on the situation there."

Amnesty International said police and security forces have confiscated mobile phones and computers from monasteries, nunneries and private homes in Tibet to stop people communicating with the outside world.

Full story here.

Lithuania's parliament has passed the toughest restrictions anywhere in the former Soviet Union on the public display of Soviet and Nazi symbols.

It will now be an offence in the Baltic state to display the images of Soviet and Nazi leaders.

This includes flags, emblems and badges carrying insignia, such as the hammer and sickle or swastika.

Correspondents say equating Soviet and Nazi symbols in this way is certain to infuriate Russia.

The new law also prohibits the Nazi and Soviet national anthems but does not specify if this extends to the modern-day Russian national anthem, which uses the Soviet music with different lyrics.

BBC Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke says these are the toughest bans on symbols from the Soviet past adopted in any of the 15 countries that emerged from the USSR.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: All visits from Russian government officials to Lithuania are suspended indefinitely until Russia changes national anthem. Russian national teams playing in Lithuania will have to stand in moment of silence instead of singing national anthem. Stalin is dead anyway so it will be OK for Russians to pay respects with silence to the dead man. Entire EU should do the same.

CHICAGO - A prominent fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted Wednesday of fraud and money laundering after a high-profile federal trial provided an unusually detailed glimpse of the pay-to-play politics that has made Illinois infamous.

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, 52, showed no emotion as the jury delivered a mixed verdict that found him guilty of scheming with the government's star witness to get kickbacks out of money management firms wanting state business, but acquitted him of charges that included attempted extortion.

The jury delivered its guilty verdict on 16 of 24 counts after a nine-week trial.

Rezko has known Obama since he entered politics and was involved in a 2005 real estate deal with the Democratic presidential candidate, although testimony barely touched on their relationship. Most of the focus was on shakedowns prosecutors said Rezko arranged when he was a top adviser to Blagojevich.

Rezko donated more than $21,000 to Obama and raised far more for his campaigns in Illinois, though not his presidential bid.

He also advised Obama on the purchase of a new Chicago home and, in his wife's name, purchased a vacant lot next to the new Obama home at the same time from a couple who insisted on selling both pieces of property simultaneously. The purchase raised questions about the extent of his help.

Full story here.

Ethiopia's Supreme Court has sentenced former ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam - in absentia - to death.

It overturned on appeal last year's ruling by the High Court sentencing Mengistu and 18 of his most senior aides to life in prison.

The judge said he had passed the death sentence as the defendants had tortured and executed thousands of innocent people, which amounted to genocide.

Mengistu has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since his overthrow in 1991.

Tens of thousands of people were killed during a period of Mengistu's 17-year rule known as the Red Terror.

The most brutal period of the regime was known as the Red Terror when suspected opponents and intellectuals were rounded up and killed.

Many of their bodies ended up in mass graves or were just tossed into the street for families to collect.

Full story here.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's ties to Colombian rebels are deeper than previously thought, U.S. officials said on Friday, following an analysis of files on a dead guerrilla leader's laptops.

The files appear to be authentic and underscore U.S. concerns about Chavez's quest for more influence in the region, an intelligence official said. Their discovery in March raised speculation the United States would put Venezuela on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"It (the analysis) reinforces the U.S. government's strong position that Chavez is attempting in various ways to project his influence throughout the region and that influence in some ways could be construed as destabilizing," the intelligence official said.

Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue involves classified information, described the files as a huge public relations win for Colombia, which is battling the guerrillas of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

"The involvement does seem to extend fairly high up in the Venezuelan government. This isn't a bunch of local yokels on the border doing their own thing," the official said.

Chavez contends the Colombian government faked the files.

Although Chavez's sympathies for the FARC are well known, Colombia has said the files seized in a March attack show Chavez offered financial support to the group.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the files also indicate Venezuela offered to arm the rebel group, possibly with rocket-propelled grenades and ground-to-air missiles. It said Venezuela offered FARC the use of a port to receive arms shipments.

The files document discussions between the rebels and Chavez about closer ties and portray a "deeper relationship than previously known," the intelligence official said.

The March attack by Colombia on a rebel camp in Ecuador killed a senior FARC leader and inflamed regional tensions. That and other recent attacks are seen as having weakened the rebel group that has been fighting a four-decade civil war in Colombia, to the point where FARC is "on its heels," the intelligence official said.

"However, they have shown an ability in the past to regroup and to regenerate leadership."

Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the United States, told the Journal in an interview on Wednesday, that the computer files were "false and an attempt to discredit the Venezuelan government."

The files indicate Venezuela has raised the prospect of drawing up a joint security plan with FARC and has sought basic training in guerrilla-warfare techniques, the Journal said, suggesting Chavez was preparing for a possible U.S. invasion of Venezuela.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Soaring food prices are a "massacre" of the world's poor and are creating a global nutritional crisis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, calling it a sign that capitalism is in decline.

His comments came only hours after the United Nations' World Food Program called more expensive food a "silent tsunami" that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.

"It is a true massacre what is happening in the world," Chavez said in a televised speech, citing U.N. statistics about deaths caused by hunger and malnourishment.

"The problem is not the production of food ... it is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis."

The self-styled revolutionary and Cuba ally has won popular support by subsidizing food for the OPEC nation's poor majority, although his administration struggled last year to keep products such as milk and sugar on store shelves.

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, visiting Caracas to meet with Chavez and other allied leaders on Wednesday, accused developed countries of spurring food prices through biofuels.

"Developed countries want to feed the cars of the rich with food -- this is the irrational world we live in today," Lage said, echoing Chavez's frequent accusations that Washington's promotion of biofuel is boosting prices of staples like corn.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned earlier this week that high food prices could wipe out progress in reducing poverty and hurt global economic growth.

Riots in poor Asian and African countries have followed steep rises in food prices caused by a range of factors including pricier fuel, bad weather and the conversion of land to grow crops for biofuel.

Editor's commentary: Is it a coincidence that food prices have soared after price for one barrel of oil exceeded $100? Every economist will tell you that when oil prices rise, food prices follow. And who is hiking oil prices right now? International stock market speculator and one of main financiers of Democratic Party, George Soros in order to undermine Republicans and George W. Bush and help Democrats regain presidency, Hugo Chavez with his nationalization of big oil companies in Venezuela and constant conflicts with US, various al-Qaida terrorist groups attacking oil tankers, refineries and sabotaging oil wells like Saddam used to do. Russian government under Putin is constantly closing gas taps to pro-democracy regimes in former Soviet republics and hike gas prices for more money for Putin and his one party rule. Who is here responsible for raising food prices and starving people to death around the world? George Soros, Hugo Chavez, al-Qaida and Putin or George W. Bush and leading capitalist countries around the world? We all know how market economy works so there is no way to keep low food prices while gas prices are sky high. Return to communist style economics would be suicidal because we all know how world communism ended with collapse of USSR in 1991. There is no such thing as free food for everyone. Lies don't feed people!

ROME (Reuters) - They survived the repression of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But Italy's communists, once the most influential leftist force in western Europe, are in disarray after a disastrous election that means the hammer and sickle will be unrepresented in parliament for the first time since World War Two.

"Even in Italy the wall has fallen, the one that was solid even though it was invisible and had remained standing even after the one in Berlin had gone," gloated Il Giornale, a conservative newspaper close to election winner Silvio Berlusconi.

In a "Rainbow Left" alliance with the Greens, the communists hoped for 6 percent to 8 percent of the vote. But squeezed out by a new centre-left Democratic Party, they scored little more than 3 percent, down from 10 percent in the 2006 election and not enough to win any seats in parliament.

"It is a heavy defeat for the left which, for the first time in the history of the Republic will not have any seats in parliament, after the victory of a populist and xenophobic right," Communist Refoundation said in a statement.

Banned by Mussolini, communists played a crucial role in resisting fascism and German Nazi occupation. The Italian Communist Party (PCI) was elected to parliament after the war and represented a third of the electorate in its 1970s heyday.

When the PCI rebranded after the Cold War, leftists splintered off to establish communist parties which had several ministers in Romano Prodi's outgoing government. The head of Communist Refoundation was speaker of the last parliament.

WRITING ON THE WALL

The Communist hammer and sickle symbol remains on the wall in Via Giubbonari, just off the Campo de' Fiori market square in central Rome.

A marble plaque identifies a former Rome office of the PCI, now occupied by the Democratic Party (PD), the centre-left party which contains the bulk of Italy's former communists.

"It has to stay there," said PD activist Elisabetta Barrella. "It commemorates Guido Rattoppatore, the head of a resistance group who was killed by the Nazis."

Like many ex-communists, 47-year-old Barrella is proud of communism's legacy. She quit when the PCI morphed into the post-Cold War Democratic Party of the Left in 1991, but returned and is now convinced that the new PD is the left's only future.

"When they took the hammer and sickle off the party symbol it was like a knife in my heart," said Barrella, who works in Italy's court of auditors. "In all other European countries there is a social-democratic party, we need that here."

Die-hards say the PD can never represent them. Italian Communists leader Oliviero Diliberto called the left's defeat a "nice result for (Walter) Veltroni," the PD's head who excluded the communists from his party's election ticket.

Outgoing Health Minister Livia Turco said the communists were to blame for their own demise as they had proved nothing but trouble for Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who needed their support to prop up his tiny parliamentary majority.

"You can't be in government and in opposition at the same time. That was a mistake and the election results showed that clearly," Turco said.

REGROUP

While Berlusconi revels in the defeat of the communists he hates, the hard left faces five years in the wilderness.

"At this point we need to start again from scratch and start again with the old symbols, the hammer and sickle," said Diliberto, vowing to keep communism alive.

Gabriele Polo, editor of communist daily Il Manifesto, said the left now had to regroup in an anti-capitalist movement -- not necessarily a party.

"We need to create a political bond, to build a credible process based on the four values we share: work, civil rights, peace and the environment," Polo told Reuters.

Some analysts picking over the election results say the disappearance of the communists from national politics is linked to the surprise victory of the Northern League, Berlusconi's junior coalition partner which doubled its vote to 8 percent.

Although usually considered right wing, the staunchly anti-immigration League which campaigns for autonomy for Italy's rich north, has the support of workers worried about jobs, the economy and crime.

In coverage that implied Italy's hard left had suffered a lasting blow at the election, a headline in Thursday's La Stampa daily read: "The new PCI is the League."

The Chinese authorities put to death at least 470 people last year, but may have killed up to 8,000, human rights group Amnesty International has said.

Amnesty said the hidden extent of executions in China, where figures are secret, might mean the Olympic host was behind the bulk of them worldwide.

"The veil of secrecy surrounding the death penalty must be lifted," it said.

In its annual report on the death penalty, Amnesty International said China had executed more than any country last year, but warned that the real figure was likely to be several thousand.

"As the world's biggest executioner, China gets the 'gold medal' for global executions," said the organisation's UK director, Kate Allen.

"According to reliable estimates, on average China secretly executes around 22 prisoners every day - that's 374 people during the Olympic Games," she added.

More than 60 crimes can carry the death penalty in China, including tax fraud, stealing VAT receipts, damaging electric power facilities, selling counterfeit medicine, embezzlement, accepting bribes and drug offences, Amnesty said.

Those sentenced to death are usually shot, but some provinces are introducing lethal injections, which the government says is more humane.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Beijing, says justice is usually swift - most of those sentenced to death are executed only weeks after they are found guilty.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Total number of executions in China this year doesn't include hundreds of people executed in Tibet during recent protests. Some call for boycott but the one who already boycotted Moscow Olympics in 1980, Jimmy Carter says that there is no reason to boycott Beijing Olympics now. According to him, thousands were killed in Afghanistan and that was the reason for boycott, unlike today when only hundreds are killed in Tibet. If Chinese government steps up with killings in Tibet then even Carter may change his mind. He is right now busy giving his full attention to terrorists (Hamas) and communists (Nepal) to help increase anarchy and chaos in the world.

ROME (AFP) - Conservative billionaire Silvio Berlusconi won Italy's general elections on Monday, securing a third term as prime minister but warning of tough times ahead for the country.

"I will govern for five years," the 71-year-old media magnate told public television after his centre-right coalition won an unexpectedly wide margin of victory. "We have difficult months ahead that will require great strength."

Berlusconi's centre-left rival Walter Veltroni, conceded defeat, saying: "As is the custom in all Western democracies, I telephoned Berlusconi to acknowledge his victory and wish him good luck in his work."

Berlusconi will return to the prime minister's office for the third time since 1994, the year after he burst onto the political stage with his party of the time, Forza Italia! (Go Italy!).

The Piepoli polling institute predicted Berlusconi's coalition would win 162 of the Senate's 315 seats, giving him six more than the minimum needed for an absolute majority.

Victory in the Senate is essential to be able to govern, and since seats are allotted on a regional basis the makeup of the upper house does not always reflect the national vote.

The upper house was the scene of outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi's downfall in January, when a small party with just three senators withdrew its support for the centre-left coalition.

In the lower Chamber of Deputies -- where the winning coalition is automatically awarded 340 seats of a total 630 -- Berlusconi's forces won 45.9 percent to 38.9 percent for the centre-left, according to projections based on a 82 percent vote sample.

Full story here.

SEOUL, South Korea - President Lee Myung-bak expressed confidence Thursday that he could introduce planned reforms to lift South Korea's sagging economy after his conservative party won a majority in parliament.

Lee's Grand National Party won a slim majority of 153 seats in the 299-member National Assembly in a Wednesday vote, giving the president a friendly parliament to deal with for most of his five-year term that began in February.

"Public support for a revival of the economy and job creation gave us a majority," Lee told his top advisers, according to presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.

Lee instructed aides to "pick up your speed and work harder" to quickly produce tangible results that ordinary people will notice.

The president's office planned to first concentrate on deregulation measures to ease burdens for companies and reduce taxes on research and development, the spokesman Lee said. The new parliament will take office on May 30 and serve for four years.

Lee, a former Seoul mayor and Hyundai executive, has so far failed to implement economic reforms promised in his election campaign and has suffered because of some bungled personnel appointments, taking some of the gloss off his landslide poll win in December.

His administration has also drawn strong criticism from North Korea for suggesting that future cooperation between the two Koreas would depend on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.

In the weeks leading up to the election, North Korea ratcheted up tensions on the divided peninsula by test-firing missiles and expelling South Korean officials from a shared industrial zone.

Lee has said he can help North Korea increase its per capita annual income to US$3,000 (?1,907) if it abandons its nuclear programs.

North Korea has said it does not need South Korea's help. On Thursday its main newspaper called Lee a "crafty profiteer and swindler," the latest in a series of personal attacks against him.

North Korea "will never allow the group of traitors to hurt its sovereignty and dignity with such clumsy sugarcoated words," the North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary released by the official Korean Central News Agency hours after Lee's party won the elections.

The North did not mention the South Korean parliamentary election, and generally refrains from immediate comment on outside developments.

PARIS (AP) -- Paris' Olympic torch relay descended into chaos Monday, with protesters scaling the Eiffel Tower, grabbing for the flame and forcing security officials to repeatedly snuff out the torch and transport it by bus past demonstrators yelling ''Free Tibet!''

The relentless anti-Chinese demonstrations ignited across the capital with unexpected power and ingenuity, foiling 3,000 police officers deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and even inline skates.

Chinese organizers finally gave up on the relay, canceling the last third of what China had hoped would be a joyous jog by torch-bearing VIPs past some of Paris' most famous landmarks.

Thousands of protesters slowed the relay to a stop-start crawl, with impassioned displays of anger over China's human rights record, its grip on Tibet and support for Sudan despite years of bloodshed in Darfur.

Five times, the Chinese officials in dark glasses and tracksuits who guard the torch extinguished it and retreated to the safety of a bus -- the last time emerging only after the vehicle drove within 15 feet of the final stop, a track and field stadium. A torchbearer then ran the final steps inside.

Outside, a few French activists supporting Tibet had a fist-fight with pro-Chinese demonstrators. The French activists spat on them and shouted, ''Fascists!''

In San Francisco, where the torch is due to arrive Wednesday, three protesters wearing harnesses and helmets climbed up the Golden Gate Bridge and tied the Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables. The banners read ''One World One Dream. Free Tibet'' and ''Free Tibet.'' They later climbed down.

NY Times: Demonstrators climbed the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday and hung banners critical of China, host of the Olympic Games.
The Olympic torch relay, which is to visit San Francisco on Wednesday, attracted protests in Paris on Monday.

In all, seven people were charged with conspiracy and causing a public nuisance, with the three climbers facing additional charges of trespassing, said Mary Ziegenbien, a spokeswoman with the California Highway Patrol.

On Tuesday, China condemned protests as ''despicable,'' blaming them on groups seeking to split Tibet from the country.

The 17.4-mile route in Paris started at the Eiffel Tower, headed down the Champs-Elysees toward City Hall, then crossed the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.

Throughout the day, protesters booed trucks emblazoned with the names of Olympic corporate sponsors, chained themselves to railings and hurled water at the flame. Some unfurled banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral. Others waved signs reading ''the flame of shame.''

The Interior Ministry said police made 18 arrests.

Officers sprayed tear gas to break up a sit-in by about 300 pro-Tibet demonstrators who blocked the route. Police tackled protesters who ran at the torch; at least two activists got within arm's length before they were grabbed by police. Near the Louvre, police blocked a protester who approached the flame with a fire extinguisher.

One detained demonstrator, handcuffed in a police bus, wrote ''liber'' on her right palm and ''te'' on the other -- spelling the French word for ''freedom'' -- and held them up to the window.

With protesters slowing down the relay, a planned stop at Paris City Hall was canceled. Earlier, French officials hung a banner declaring support for human rights on the building's facade.

A spokesman for the French Olympic Committee, Denis Masseglia, estimated that a third of the 80 athletes and other VIPs who had been slated to carry the torch did not get to do so.

On a bus carrying French athletes, one man in a track suit shed a tear as protesters pelted the vehicle with eggs, bottles and soda cans.

The chaos started at the Eiffel Tower moments after the relay began. Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first torchbearer, former hurdler Stephane Diagana, shouting ''Freedom for the Chinese,'' before security officials pulled him back.

''It is inadmissible that the games are taking place in the world's biggest prison,'' Garel said later.

Outside parliament, as the torch passed, 35 lawmakers protested, shouting ''Freedom for Tibet.''

''The flame shouldn't have come to Paris,'' said Carmen de Santiago, who had ''free'' painted on one cheek and ''Tibet'' on the other.

Pro-Chinese activists carrying national flags held counter-demonstrations.

''The Olympic Games are about sports. It's not fair to turn them into politics,'' said Gao Yi, a Chinese doctoral student in computer science.

France's former sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, stressed that though the torch was extinguished along the route, the Olympic flame itself still burned in a lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane flights. A Chinese official said that flame was used to re-light the torch each time it was brought aboard the bus.

Pro-Tibet advocate Christophe Cunniet said he and other activists were detained after they waved Tibetan flags, threw flyers and tried to block the route. Cunniet said police kicked him, cutting his forehead. ''I'm still dazed,'' he said.

At least one athlete, former Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec, was supportive of the demonstrators. ''I think it is very, very good that people have mobilized like that,'' she told French television.

But other athletes and sports officials were bitterly dismayed.

''A symbol like that, carried by young people who want to deliver a message of peace, should be allowed to pass,'' said the head of the French Olympic Committee, Henri Serandour. ''These games are a sounding board for all those who want to speak about China and Tibet. But at the same time, there are many wars on the planet that no one is talking about.''

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies agreed. ''We respect that right for people to demonstrate peacefully, but equally there is a right for the torch to pass peacefully and the runners to enjoy taking part in the relay,'' she said.

China's Foreign Ministry assailed the demonstrations. ''We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan separatist forces,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a Web statement. ''Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world.''

Jiang also disputed reports that the torch had to be extinguished several times, calling them false. ''To protect the security and dignity of the Olympic torch under the circumstances there, the modes of relay were temporarily changed,'' she said. Jiang did not provide additional details.

Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists and 37 people were arrested.

Beijing organizers criticized the London protests as a ''disgusting'' form of sabotage by Tibetan separatists.

''The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular,'' said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. ''It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure.''

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony depending on how the situation evolves in Tibet. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that was still the case.

Activists have been protesting along the torch route since the flame embarked on its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

The round-the-world trip is the longest in Olympic history, and is meant to highlight China's rising economic and political power. Activists have seized on it as a platform for their causes.

The relay also is expected to face demonstrations in New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-continent tour before arriving in mainland China May 4.

PARIS - The Olympic torch was extinguished and put on a bus for protection at least twice Monday as it moved through Paris amid heavy protests, including at least one attempt to rush a torch-bearer.

A man identified as a Green Party activist was grabbed by security officers as he headed for 1997 400-meter world champion Stephane Diagana, who was carrying the torch at the beginning of its relay from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. The man was tackled before he got close to Diagana.

Later in the relay, police threw other protesters to the ground and carried some away. The torch was snuffed out and placed on a bus.

It was extinguished and put on a bus again less than an hour later as protesters booed and began chanting "Tibet!" although none appeared to rush the torch.

The relay resumed but protesters were planning more demonstrations along Monday's route.

The torch relay is expected to face demonstrations in San Francisco, New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-continent tour before arriving in mainland China on May 4.

Full story here.

The 80 runners will be guarded on the 28km (18 mile) route by a cordon of 65 motorcycles, 200 police on rollerblades or running nearby, and 200 riot police.

Police plan to secure a 200m (660ft) perimeter around the torch as it is carried from the Eiffel Tower, down the Champs-Elysees towards City Hall, then over the River Seine to the southern Charlety athletics stadium.

The Paris police chief has said the flame will be protected like a head of state.

The head of the Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, said it had altered its initial plans for similar demonstrations because of the expected heavy police presence, but nevertheless promised something "spectacular".

"The Chinese have made sure that for a few hours, Paris will look like Tiananmen Square," Robert Menard said. "I think it's shameful."

Police hope the elaborate security "bubble" will protect the relay from the persistent pro-Tibet protests which disrupted its passage through London.

Thirty-seven arrests were made in London on Sunday as protesters tried to seize the torch and disrupt the relay.

At one point, the torch was transferred onto a bus to protect it from the demonstrators.

The torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, last week and will go through 20 countries before being carried into the Beijing Games opening ceremony on 8 August.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Somehow we don't trust much to Clouseau if we know what happened in recent youth protests in Paris turned deadly. "Gone in 60 Seconds" may become title in French papers day after. This is from Wiki:

When the Olympic flame came to the Panathinaiko Stadium, stadium of the 1896 Summer Olympics, to start the global torch relay, the night was very windy and the torch, lit by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, blew out due to the wind, but was re-lit from the back up flame taken from the original ceremonial flame at Olympia. This was the second time that the Olympic torch flame was put out.

The first occurred at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Canada. After a rainstorm that doused the Olympic flame a few days after the games had opened, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.

PODGORICA (Reuters) - Montenegro's President Filip Vujanovic won re-election on Sunday, reaffirming the dominance of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) on the country's political scene.

The CEMI agency, one of Montenegro's most respected election monitoring bodies, said Vujanovic received 52.3 percent of the vote, comfortably over the 50 percent required to clinch the largely ceremonial post in the first round.

The results were based on a partial ballot count. Final results from the state election commission are due on Monday, but the key challengers have already conceded defeat.

Vujanovic, a senior DPS official and close ally of popular Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, campaigned on a platform stressing his experience, pro-Western stance and long-time support for Montenegrin independence.

"This is a victory for all of us, for our Montenegro and for a better future," Vujanovic, 53, told his supporters after results were announced. "I also want to express my gratitude to those who voted for my opponents. I will be the president of all of Montenegro's citizens."

The former Yugoslav republic of some 650,000 people voted to end its loose union with neighbor Serbia in 2006 and has since enjoyed strong growth, faster progress towards the European Union and a positive image as a booming tourism destination.

The West says its main challenges are weak institutions and endemic corruption, partly blamed on the DPS' continuous 19-year rule over a closely knit society that prefers getting things done through personal ties and political patronage.

Analysts say change could be slower now that Djukanovic, who served as either president or prime minister from 1991 to 2006, is back in power.

The 46-year old quit politics one-and-a-half years ago, turning down the PM's post in favor of a close ally, but returned when his protege resigned due to illness in January.

"Vujanovic and the DPS have a very loyal voting base," said analyst Srdjan Bogosavljevic of the Belgrade-based Strategic Marketing polling agency.

Commenting on prominent anti-corruption campaigner Nebojsa Medojevic coming in a surprise third with a lacklustre 17 percent, Bogosavljevic said it was because "young people in Montenegro are abstaining, as in all post-communist states."

The election also showed that ethnic-based platforms might slowly be becoming less relevant as the country prospers.

Andrija Mandic wooed the Serb minority by promising closer ties with Belgrade and vowing never to recognise Kosovo, the former Serbian province which seceded in February.

He received some 19 percent of the vote, while ethnic Serbs make up between 25 and 30 percent of Montenegro's citizens.

Monitors said total turnout was 68.7 percent.

BEIJING - Police fired on hundreds of protesters in a Tibetan area of western China, killing eight people, overseas activist groups said. State media reported one government official was seriously injured in what it called a riot.

Two monks also committed suicide late last month because of government oppression, another Tibetan activist group said Saturday.

The reports indicate that unrest is continuing in China's Tibetan areas despite a massive security presence in place since anti-government demonstrations in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and neighboring provinces broke out in mid-March.

The protests are the longest and most sustained challenge to China's 57-year rule in the Himalayan region. China's subsequent crackdown has drawn international scrutiny and criticism in the run-up to this summer's Olympic Games.

Police fired on Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens who had marched on local government offices in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province near Tibet on Thursday, according to the London-based Free Tibet Campaign and the International Campaign for Tibet.

The protesters were demanding the release of two monks who were detained after 3,000 paramilitary troops searched their monastery and found photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the groups said.

The U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia said it had unconfirmed reports that up to 15 people were killed and dozens injured in the violence.

On Saturday, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in India, said two monks committed suicide last month in Sichuan's Aba County following government oppression. Aba County has been the scene of large protests involving hundreds of monks and citizens.

One monk, identified as Lobsang Jinpa, from the Aba Kirti Monastery killed himself March 27, leaving a signed note saying, "I do not want to live under Chinese oppression even for a minute," the human rights group said.

The group said the second suicide occurred March 30 at the Aba Gomang Monastery, when a 75-year-old monk named Legtsok took his life, telling his followers he "can't bear the oppression anymore."

It was impossible to verify the information since Chinese authorities have banned foreign reporters from traveling to the region.

The Tibet Daily newspaper reported Saturday that the government planned to step up its "patriotic education" campaign, which requires monks to denounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and declare their loyalty to Beijing.

"We should strengthen patriotic education so as to guide the masses of monks to continuously display the patriotic tradition and uphold the banner of patriotism," the paper quoted Hao Peng, Tibet's deputy Communist Party Chief, as saying.

Thursday's violence in Sichuan province came when the government attempted to enforce "patriotic education" at the Garze monastery, according to the activist groups.

The chief monk at the monastery had refused entry to a government team on Wednesday and the team returned the next day with the paramilitary troops, leading to the arrests and protests, according to the groups.

The Tibetan government-in-exile says up to 140 were killed in the protests and the ensuing crackdown.

In India, police arrested 17 Tibetan exiles Saturday as they attempted to march from the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh in northern India into Tibet, according to local official M.K. Bhandari. Ladakh is home to about 7,000 Tibetan exiles.

The exiles have been arrested for violating the law that prohibits entry into sensitive border areas.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Tibet must become demilitarized zone free of all military presence. The only acceptable solution is that Tibet obtains similar status as Vatican in order to be free to promote Budhist religion without interference of any world government. Having WMDs in Tibet just doesn't make any sense. Trying to reeducate Tibetans and their priests to become Chinese patriots is a ploy of communist Neanderthals from Beijing that never left Stalin era of 1930s. Stalin thought of himself as a big patriot so all these patriotic crap talk is nothing but manifestation of Stalinism.Chinese immigrants have nothing to do in Tibet, they should go home immediately.

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution.

Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam's regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

Prosecutors said Al-Hanooti was responsible for monitoring Congress for the Iraqi Intelligence Service. From 1999 to 2002, he allegedly provided Saddam's government with a list of U.S. lawmakers he believed favored lifting economic sanctions against Iraq.

Full story here.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- NATO plans to start an online TV channel to improve the image of the Western military alliance.

NATO TV will be launched at a summit next week in Bucharest, Romania, alliance spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday.

Much of its coverage will focus on the mission of the alliance's 47,000 troops in Afghanistan. NATO plans to have five TV crews sending regular reports from the country.

The channel will be available on the alliance's Web site, www.nato.int. Broadcast quality footage will also be available for TV networks to download.

Denmark is providing much of the funding for the project, which is part of an effort to boost flagging public support in several allied countries for the Afghanistan mission.

Editor's commentary: Now this is going to be good alternative to Al Jazeera and CNN. Expect some objective reports from world hot spots, daily terrorist body count and live raids into terrorist hideouts similar to Fox Cop shows. Entertainment shouldn't be ignored like favorite games Call of Duty, Command & Conquer games with lots of industrial music. Do we need mention Rambo and Chuck Norris movies? Who says there is nothing good on TV these days?

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Even before the Olympic flame was lit Monday, a protester of China's human rights policies disrupted the solemn ceremony, foreshadowing the prospect of demonstrations throughout the 85,000-mile torch-relay route right up to the Beijing Games themselves.

Forecasts of clouds and rain had been considered the main threat to the pomp-filled torch-lighting. But in the end, while the sun sparked the flame to life, it was the protesters who turned the joyful bow to the Olympics' roots into a political statement about China's crackdown in Tibet and other rights issues.

Three men advocating press freedom evaded massive security and ran onto the field at the ceremony in Ancient Olympia before they were seized by police. Minutes later, a Tibetan woman covered in fake blood briefly blocked the path of the torch relay.

Protests are bound to follow the torch throughout its 136-day route across five continents and 20 countries. China pledged strict security measures to ensure its segment of the relay won't be marred by protests.

Tibetan activists have already said they plan to demonstrate elsewhere on the route.

"Later we will do protests in London and Paris," said Tenzin Dorjee, a member of Students for a Free Tibet who protested in Ancient Olympia.

At Monday's ceremony, one of the three protesting members of the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders ran behind BOCOG President Liu Qi as he was giving a speech. The protester unfurled a black banner showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

China state TV cut away from the protest and showed a prerecorded scene. Chinese TV commentators did not mention the demonstration.

The first torchbearer in the relay was Greece's Alexandros Nikolaidis. After the torch left the stadium, a Tibetan woman covered in red paint or dye lay in the road approaching the village of Olympia while other protesters chanted "Free Tibet" and "Shame on China."

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: It only remains to be seen how many times they succeed in stealing Olympic torch and how many replacements Olympic Committee have on hand. Olympic torch may never arrive in Beijing.

WASHINGTON - Americans have a right to own guns, Supreme Court justices declared Tuesday in a historic and lively debate that could lead to the most significant interpretation of the Second Amendment since its ratification two centuries ago.

Inside the court, at the end of a session extended long past the normal one hour, a majority of justices appeared ready to say that Americans have a "right to keep and bear arms" that goes beyond the amendment's reference to service in a militia.

Full story here.

Protesters in Tibet's capital burnt shops and vehicles and yelled for independence on Friday as the Himalayan region was hit by its biggest protests in two decades, prompting the Dalai Lama to warn Beijing against using "brute force."

There were also reports at least two people died in the violence, possibly more.

Peaceful street marches by Tibetan Buddhist monks over past days gave way to angry crowds of hundreds who confronted anti-riot police in the remote region -- testing China's grip on control just as it readies for the Olympic Games.

"Now it's very chaotic outside," an ethnic Tibetan resident said by telephone.

"People have been burning cars and motorbikes and buses. There is smoke everywhere and they have been throwing rocks and breaking windows. We're scared."

U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia said Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan protesters, killing at least two.

Residents around the Jokhang temple in old Lhasa which was a scene of protests said they were hiding indoors.

Some said they had seen lines of anti-riot police, but none spoke of gunfire. "We are waiting to see what will happen tomorrow," said an ethnic Tibetan woman. "It could get much worse."

Up to 400 protesters, including students, had gathered around a market near the Jokhang temple early on Friday and were confronted by about 1,000 police, according to a witness cited by Matt Whitticase of the Free Tibet Campaign in London.

Four police were injured in the contention that followed, and another protest broke out near the Potala Palace, Whitticase added.

An ethnic Tibetan resident said there were "protests everywhere" accompanied by shouts for independence from China.

"It's no longer just the monks. Now they have been joined by lots of residents," the man said.

The eruption of anger comes despite Beijing's repeated claims Tibetans are grateful for improved lives, and it threatens to stain preparations for the Olympics, when the government hopes to show off national prosperity and harmony.

"These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance," Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said in a statement.

"I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people."

The United States and European Union both urged China to show restraint, and the United States pressed China to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing condemns as a "separatist."

As Beijing prepares to host the Olympics in August, the protests present hard choices for President Hu Jintao, who was Communist Party boss in the region in 1989 when China imposed martial law there to quell anti-Chinese protest.

Full story here.

Note: Bjork in Shangai: China's Culture Ministry last week said it would tighten controls over foreign artists after Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" after performing her song "Declare Independence."

Communist Cuba has authorized the unrestricted sale of computers and DVD and video players in the first sign that its new president, Raul Castro, is moving to improve Cubans' access to consumer goods.

An internal government memo seen by Reuters on Thursday said the appliances long desired by Cubans can go on sale immediately, although air conditioners will not be available until next year and toasters until 2010 due to limited power supplies.

Only foreigners and companies can buy computers in Cuba at present, while DVD players were seized at the airport until last year, when customs rules were eased.

Now Cubans will be able to buy them freely, paying for them in hard currency CUCs, or convertible pesos, worth 24 times more than the Cuban pesos state wages are paid in.

"Based on the improved availability of electricity, the government at the highest level has approved the sale of some equipment which was prohibited," the memo said.

It also listed television sets, which were already on sale, electric pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles, car alarms and microwave ovens.

The new memo circulated within the state-run retail system said Cubans will have access to a second group of products in 2009, including air conditioners, which are much in demand to help endure the hot summer days in the tropical country.

If Cuba's electricity supplies permit, additional appliances to be sold freely in 2010 include toasters and electric ovens, the memo said.

Cubans were delighted with the prospect of being able to buy items such as microwave ovens and air conditioners that were previously only available as stolen goods on the black market.

The sale of many electric appliances was banned in the 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of billions of dollars in subsidies and oil supplies, resulting in an energy crunch and daily blackouts of as long as 18 hours.

Cuba put an end to power cuts in 2006 by importing hundreds of electricity generators run on fuel supplied by Venezuela, its main foreign ally.

Many Cubans expect the state to soon allow them to buy cellular telephones. While they will now be able to buy computers, access to the Internet remains controlled by the government.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Most probably in 2011 Cubans will be able to buy unrestricted quantities of toillet paper and in 2012 salt and sugar.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- A Russian dubbed the ''Merchant of Death'' for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels.

Viktor Bout, 41, whose dealings reportedly inspired a 2005 movie about the illicit arms trade, was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan. Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint charging that Bout conspired to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including 100 surface-to-air missiles and armor-piercing rockets, that he thought were going to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The leftist group, which has been fighting Colombia's government for more than four decades, is listed by the U.S. as a terror group. Bout and an associate, Andrew Smulian, were charged with ''conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.''

Thai police Col. Petcharat Sengchai said Smulian was still being sought.

Bout, who has never before been prosecuted for arms selling despite investigations in several countries, has always denied being involved in illicit deals. The paunchy businessman was shown briefly by Thai police to reporters; he stared blankly and made no comment.

The criminal complaint in New York said confidential sources directed by the DEA posed as FARC members while negotiating from November to February to buy arms from Bout.

Noting that lengthy investigation, a law enforcement official in Washington said there was no link between Bout's arrest and the weekend seizure by Colombian troops of a top FARC leader's laptop computer. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

In New York, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia would not say how much the weapons involved in the alleged deal were worth but said the cost of transporting them alone was set at $5 million. He said the weapons were to be parachuted to FARC fighters in Colombian territory.

The arrest ''marks the end of the reign of one of the world's most wanted arms traffickers,'' Garcia said.

Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, allegedly built his contacts in the post-Soviet arms industry into a business dealing arms to combatants in conflicts around the world. He is generally believed to have been a model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie ''Lord of War.''

Bout's best-documented activities have been in Central and West Africa, where he has been accused of funneling weapons into various civil wars since the early 1990s.

In 2000, Peter Hain, then Britain's Cabinet minister for African affairs, called Bout ''the chief sanctions-buster'' flouting U.N. arms embargoes on the warring parties in Angola and Sierra Leone, dubbing the Russian ''a merchant of death.''

Bout also reportedly supplied arms to warring parties in Afghanistan before the 2001 fall of the Taliban's Islamic regime.

One of his companies also served as a subcontractor involved in transporting U.S. military personnel and private U.S. contractors in Iraq, according to a book about Bout by journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun published last year.

The book, ''Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible,'' also says a plane in Bout's fleet made several airdrops of weapons to FARC guerrillas between December 1998 and April 1999. It says the flights dropped about 10,000 weapons to the rebels, ''enabling them to greatly enhance their military capabilities.''

In 2005, the U.S. Treasury Department said: ''Bout has the capacity to transport tanks, helicopters and weapons by the tons to virtually any point in the world. The arms he has sold or brokered has helped fuel conflicts and support U.N. sanctioned regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.''

U.N. reports say Bout set up a network of more than 50 aircraft around the world, owned by shadowy companies with names such as Bukavu Aviation Transport, Business Air Services and Great Lakes Business.

Bout's list of alleged customers in Africa includes former dictator Charles Taylor of Liberia, the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, now known as Congo, and both sides of the civil war in Angola.

A U.N. travel ban imposed on Bout said he supported the effort of Taylor's regime in Liberia to destabilize neighboring Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds. West Africa's diamonds have become known as ''blood diamonds'' for the warring they have inspired.

In October 2006, President Bush issued an executive order freezing the assets of Bout and several associates and warlords in Congo and barring Americans from doing business with them. They were accused of violating international laws involving targeting of children or violating a ban on sales of military equipment to Congo.

The U.S. Treasury's 2005 sanctions announcement said air transport companies controlled by Bout ''played a key role in supplying arms to Charles Taylor's regime in Liberia and the Sierra Leone rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front,'' both of which were notorious for inflicting atrocities on civilians.

In 2002, Belgium issued an international arrest warrant for Bout through Interpol, the international police agency, on charges of money-laundering and criminal conspiracy.

Bout is believed to have served in an air transport unit of the Russian military until about 1991. He built his business on the huge drawdown of weapons and aircraft in the former Soviet bloc of eastern Europe as the Cold War waned.

A 2005 report by Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group, alleged Bout was ''the most prominent foreign businessman'' involved in trafficking arms to U.N.-embargoed countries. It implicated Bout in transferring ''very large quantities of arms'' from Ukraine that were delivered to Uganda via Tanzania aboard a Greek-registered cargo ship.

Bout's businesses included many legitimate operations as well, according to a report by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

''Bout's companies shipped vegetables and crayfish from South Africa to Europe, transported United Nations peacekeepers from Pakistan to East Timor, and reportedly assisted the logistics of Operation Restore Hope, the U.S.-led military famine relief effort in Somalia in 1993,'' said the center's 2002 report.

Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Strategies and Technologies, described Bout as a rich ''adventurist, one of these guys who emerged at the start of the 1990s and started pumping weapons from the former Soviet Union into Africa.''

BOGOTA, Colombia - A single laptop can reveal much, and so it is with the digital treasure chest that Colombian commandos found in the jungle quarters of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes.

Files in the computer seized in Saturday's raid into Ecuador that claimed the lives of Reyes and 23 of his comrades offer an intimate portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's desire to undermine Colombia's U.S.-allied government.

In a document dated Feb. 9, Marquez passes along Chavez's thanks for a $150,000 gift when he was imprisoned from 1992-94 for leading a failed coup — and indicates Chavez's desire to smear Uribe.

In a letter the previous day to the same recipients, Marquez discusses Chavez's plan to try to persuade leading Latin American nations to help get the FARC removed from lists of international terror groups.

In a Dec. 11 message to the secretariat, Marquez writes: "If you are in agreement, I can receive Jim and Tucker to hear the proposal of the gringos."

Writing two days before his death, Reyes tells his secretariat comrades that "the gringos," working through Ecuador's government, are interested "in talking to us on various issues."

"They say the new president of their country will be (Barack) Obama," noting that Obama rejects both the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia and the current military aid program.

Another message, to Reyes from a lower-ranking commander and dated Feb. 16, includes mention of a possible purchase of 50 kilos — 110 pounds — of uranium.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Now we know that some Americans connected with Democratic Party are working closely with Government of Ecuador that harbors FARC terrorists. They eagerly wait for Obama to become president and terminate all aid to Uribe which would automatically lead to victory of FARC and establishment of new terrorist state in South America. Obama recently said: "What exactly is this foreign policy experience?" This would count as foreign policy experience where he seeks support of terrorist groups around the world for his presidential campaign. He is ready to withdraw all troops from Iraq but remains to be seen if he wants to remove all American troops from Arab world which is main goal of bin Laden. On domestic front Obama is already involved with Chicago mafia and he already got full endorsement of labor unions run by organized crime. Obama resembles dark horse candidate Jimmy Carter that almost ruined America in late '70s. His victory would obviously plunge America and world into the state of total chaos and anarchy.

Chetnik governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is also involved with this shady character Rezko and others like Levine:

It is not a coincidence that Serb terrorist group supporting war criminals is stationed in Illinois where Blagojevich is governor. Various mafia members form Serbia tied with Milosevic government regularly came to Chicago to bring money to these criminals. Serb mafia is known to have well established contacts with Chicago mafia as well as with Gambino family.

Blagojevich is also as Obama member of Democratic Party. Clinton administration during '90s openly refused to support Colombian government fight against terrorists from FARC so it is widely expected that who ever wins nomination from Democratic Party will terminate aid to Colombia and openly help Chavez and Correa to support FARC and establish terrorist state in South America.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- A Russian opposition leader accused of hitting a policeman has gone on a hunger strike to protest his detainment, which he believes is politically motivated, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Maxim Reznik, leader of the Yabloko party in St. Petersburg, began the hunger strike on Tuesday, when a city court ruled that he should remain in custody for two months while the case is under investigation, attorney Boris Gruzd said.

Reznik was arrested before an anti-Kremlin protest was to take place Monday, led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov. Reznik is a St. Petersburg organizer of the protests held by Kasparov's opposition coalition.

He has denied the charge against him. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

''We'll do everything necessary to defend Reznik,'' Gruzd said. ''But it looks like Reznik's case was a political decision. Therefore it can be solved only in a political way.''

The city prosecutor's office could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

According to Gruzd, Reznik was arrested after trying to break up a fight between an acquaintance and two unknown men. Police arrived at the scene and tried to detain his acquaintance, former party member Sergei Indenok.

The officers began to beat Indenok when he resisted, Gruzd said. When Reznik intervened, they beat him, too, the lawyer said.

Reznik also is the chief organizer of an opposition conference being planned for April 6 in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city.

''Reznik's arrest is an attempt to break up the conference, but we will have it anyway,'' said Alexander Shurshev, the local leader of Yabloko's youth wing.

Yabloko has asked the court to release Reznik on condition he not leave the city while the case is under investigation.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - President George W. Bush backed Colombia on Tuesday in an escalating Andean crisis as Venezuela moved troops to its border and Colombia accused President Hugo Chavez of genocide for supporting rebels.

Chavez has warned that war could break out after Colombian forces bombed inside a neighboring South American state, Ecuador, to kill a leading leftist rebel.

Bush weighed in on the crisis for the first time since Saturday's raid, accusing Chavez's "regime" of provocation and saying the superpower opposed any act of aggression that could destabilize the region. Chavez has in the past raised the specter of a U.S. attack on his OPEC nation and said he would cut off oil exports.

Bush told reporters about a telephone call with President Alvaro Uribe in which he said "America would continue to stand with Colombia."

The conservative Uribe, whose government receives billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, threatened to take Chavez to international court for backing Colombian rebels' "genocide." Colombia says the raid unearthed evidence Chavez recently paid the rebels $300 million -- something Venezuela denies.

"We are not warmongers, but we are not weak. We cannot allow terrorists who seek refuge in other countries to spill the blood of our countrymen," Uribe said.

Ecuador and Venezuela have cut diplomatic ties with Colombia in the crisis.

Uribe also accuses Chavez's leftist ally in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa, of supporting the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Thousands of people have been killed or displaced by Latin America's oldest insurgency, although the violence, bombings and kidnappings from the conflict have dropped under Uribe, making him highly popular at home.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Countries that harbor terrorists can not invoke sovereignty to prevent other countries from fighting terrorism. Equador wants to become new Cambodia by building camps for terrorists and providing them safe haven. World is today much better and safer with death of FARC terrorist who tried to build dirty bomb and kill thousands of innocent civilians.

Italian police have arrested the leader of one of the country's most powerful mafia groups, officials have said.

Pasquale Condello, 57, was held in a house in Reggio Calabria, on mainland Italy's southern tip, police said.

Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said Mr Condello was the "number one boss of the 'Ndrangheta" crime syndicate.

Mr Condello had been on the run since a murder conviction in 1987. The 'Ndrangheta is considered to be more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia.

Mr Condello is also known as "the supreme one" for his role at the top of the crime syndicate.

He had received several life prison terms for a series of crimes, prosecutor Alberto Cisterna told Sky TG24 television.

Italian officials believe the 'Ndrangheta controls cocaine trafficking in many parts of Europe.

Full story here.

PRISTINA, Kosovo - Kosovo's parliament declared the territory a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.

Serbia immediately denounced the declaration as illegal, and Russia also rejected it, demanding an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. President Bush said the U.S. would work to prevent violence after the declaration and the European Union also appealed for calm.

"Kosovo is a republic — an independent, democratic and sovereign state," parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi said as the chamber burst into applause. Across the capital, Pristina, revelers danced in the streets, fired guns into the air and waved red and black Albanian flags in jubilation at the birth of the world's newest country.

Sunday's declaration was carefully orchestrated with the U.S. and key European powers, and Kosovo was counting on swift international recognition that could come as early as Monday, when EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels, Belgium.

Full story here.

Despite the box-office killing spree of the new Rambo flick, gone are the days of ridiculously buff action stars spouting even more ridiculous catchphrases. Today's action hero favors agility and intellect over bulging pecs and massive machine-guns. And video games are following suit. In their bid to grow along with gamers, a slew of contemporary games have adopted a new type of male hero. More Indiana Jones than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the burgeoning breed of leading man is cool, calm, and collected, relying on their brains just as much as their brawn.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: It seems that guys working for Yahoo have their pants down after recent Microsoft attempt of Yahoo takeover. This is what happens when you try to glorify geriatric heroes and cutthroat assassins. The only good role for Harrison Ford would be role of a grandfather. Even during his second Indiana Jones movie, Temple of Doom he had to be flown back to America for back surgery. He couldn't even do one mild action scene right. How pathetic! The best of them, Assassin's Creed features cutthroat assassin that has to murder important men in 3 cities. Bin Laden will sure like this game as well as moronic Bioshock where main hero is a cloned fetus that likes to hijack planes and crash them down. Is there any guy out there that really want to be like them?

Our choice of leading man in a video game goes to the Duke. Game is a bit late but so it was the case with latest Rambo movie. Ten or 20 years passes quickly. Duke doesn't need to think much, he is there to kick some serious alien ass. Here is the recent trailer from "Duke Nukem Forever":

For those who can't wait we recommend "Blacksite: Area 51" where you can be large and in charge as Aeran Pierce. His first mission is Iraq and then he takes on aliens. Use Anti-Tank Launcher to kill Godzilla like monsters.

Europe's main election watchdog has said it will boycott Russia's presidential election on 2 March.

"We regret that circumstances prevent us from observing this election," said Spencer Oliver, general secretary of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been arguing with Russia over the size and scope of the observers' mission.

The monitors had argued that arriving just three days before the vote would mean they could not monitor the election campaign to see if it was free and fair for all candidates, including their access to Russia's media.

The monitors normally arrive in countries up to two months before voting takes place so they can observe the registration of candidates, campaigning and media coverage as well as the vote itself.

The OSCE monitors decided not to observe the parliamentary election in Russia last December because of similar restrictions, the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says.

Western observers who did come to Russia in December criticised the election, saying it had not been fair, our correspondent says.

Full story here.

LOS ANGELES - Sylvester Stallone says his latest "Rambo" movie and its tagline are inspiring real-life opponents of Myanmar's ruling military junta - and prompting a government backlash.

While the film has yet to be formally released in Asia, Stallone said he's heard reports that Myanmar police have prohibited DVD sellers from stocking pirated copies. Stallone also said two of the film's actors, who are from the country formerly known as Burma, told him that family members have been arrested.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the claims.

Myanmar's military crushed pro-democracy protests led by students and Buddhist priests last year.

The fourth "Rambo" has the disaffected Vietnam vet trying to find missionaries captured by Myanmar soldiers, who are shown razing villages and killing civilians.

Stallone filmed the movie on a river bordering Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.

"Either live for something, die for nothing - it's your choice," Stallone said on Saturday in a phone call from Paris, where he is promoting the new film. "Students have now used this film as a rallying point and are using the quote, thinking maybe the American military will intervene and save them."

He issued a challenge to the junta about its portrayal.

"If they think this movie is a fantasy," he said, "I welcome the opportunity to let me come over there and walk around the country without armed guards following me every inch of the way."

Editor's commentary: Latest Rambo movie is the best action movie ever made. On a scale from one to five stars this movie is rated by FS Net as a seven star "Fist of the North Star" movie for live action that resembles closely this legendary action anime. At this moment there is not a single action movie that is even considered for this award. Rambo II, the best Rambo movie until today is five star rated action movie. Instead of "fists flying, heads exploding" description of "Fist of the North Star", latest Rambo movie can be described as "bullets flying, heads exploding and much more". Action is so intense and scenes so vivid that for 90 minutes your jaw will drop to the floor. Seeing movie is like having religious experience that will leave you in shock for long time.

The best scene in the movie is when Rambo shoots a guy in the head with an arrow, he falls down and hits the mine with his head and explodes. Everyone in audience enjoyed it because the same guy couple of minutes earlier set up mines in the water and then forced innocent villagers to run for it because he and his comrades are making bets on who will hit the mine. Rambo's action is therefore fully justifiable, it is not a senseless act of violence. Movie intro is short but very good. It gives perfect resume on what is happening in Burma right now without becoming long boring documentary. Pace of the movie is fantastic and there is not a second wasted. If Bryan Singer directed Rambo IV then movie would run 3-4 hours in order for him to include all action. Other good scenes are when Rambo uses Claymore mine to detonate unexploded WWII buster bomb and Rambo using AA gun to shoot enemies (it's much bigger than M60).

Critics usually put all movies in the same bag and then action movies get bad reviews. "Lack of deep story, character development, political correctness" kill anything but Shakespeare movie adaptation. You can best hope for 3 stars and ton of negative comments. Beside ton of action, Rambo IV is not a fantasy movie based on fiction but on reality. Burmese military junta is one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world and country is largely because of that internationally isolated. Killing fields, gang rapes by military, extrajudicial killings are everyday life in Burma. You can search FS Net for Burma and see for yourself how grave situation is there.

Unlike Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris that gave up on action movies and embraced politics, Stallone is still ready to rumble even in his 60s. "Lost Action Hero" star Schwarzenegger is slowly heading to Washington as a politician but Stallone may arrive sooner in final Rambo V movie "Mr. Rambo Goes to Washington" to set Congress straight with his trusty M60.

Latest ban in Burma of Rambo movie is nothing new. Same thing happened with previous Rambo movies being banned behind Iron Curtain countries and their oppressive allies. Many do not know that Rambo II was officially banned in Yugoslavia as well and never played in any theater. The only way to watch it was to rent some cam copy from Kuwait it in some speakeasy video club. Same happened to Rambo III so if finally Rambo IV hits Belgrade theaters it is going to be only second Rambo movie after first one in 1982. Censors saw first movie as American defeatism and desperation after loss in Vietnam and they never anticipated what would happen in second one. Watching Rambo movie in the past as well today in some countries mounts to act of dissent. That is why Rambo movies are so popular around the world, they are not politically correct, they do not tell you to obey your master but to fight for your life and your dreams. In America freedom is taken for granted and Rambo movies are mostly watched as action entertainment only.

Russia granted refugee status to the wife and son of the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, the country's immigration service has admitted.

The two were given the status in March 2005, Russian officials said.

Marko Milosevic left for Russia in 2000 after his father resigned. His mother Mirjana Markovic followed in 2003 when she came under investigation.

Both are the subject of international arrest warrants issued by Serbia for charges including alleged fraud.

One Serbian probe was set up to investigate allegations that they led an international cigarette smuggling ring.

The Russian immigration service said she and her son were granted refugee status because of the threat to their lives in Serbia.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Asylum is offered to refugees, not to criminals who avoid justice. Mirjana Markovic is wanted by Interpol regarding kidnapping and murder of former Serb president Ivan Stambolic and her son is wanted for participation in brutal beating of 3 members of youth organization Otpor and illegal tobacco trafficking. Russia has declared herself as sponsor of criminals around the world with this shameless act of protection. Upcoming presidential elections in Russia will be completely undemocratic, not free and unfair by a wide margin. Russia today resembles Belarus and they might want to consider Lukashenko as the best dictator for Russia instead of Medvedev, Zhuganov or Zhirinovski.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Once a senior KGB officer who says he was driven by patriotism, Sergei Tretyakov says he defected in 2000 because he lost faith in post-Soviet Russia and he's now ready to tell his story for the first time.

As deputy head of intelligence at Russia's U.N. mission from 1995 to 2000, Tretyakov directed spy operations in New York and at the United Nations. He says his agents included a former Soviet bloc ambassador and a senior Russian official in the Iraqi oil-for-food program.

Tretyakov's defection with his wife and daughter in 2000 caused only a minor flurry and was shrouded in secrecy.

A new book by former Washington Post journalist Pete Earley reveals he was among the most senior Russian agents to defect to the United States, and that he was a double-agent passing secrets to Washington for up to three years before 2000.

Among those Earley names as spies or contacts are a Canadian parliamentarian, a U.N. ambassador of a former Soviet-bloc state and a Russian official appointed to a U.N. post in the Iraqi oil-for-food program in the 1990s.

The book says the official used his position to manipulate the price of Iraqi oil sold under the program, which was meant to allow the purchase of humanitarian goods at a time of international sanctions, to the benefit of Russian interests.

Tretyakov said Russian intelligence was just as active now as it ever was in Soviet times. "The Cold War never ended, it's transformed, it's like a virus mutating," he said, adding that he hoped the book would be a "wake-up call" to Americans.

Tretyakov said the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin served at a KGB office in Leningrad rather than at Moscow headquarters showed he was "a KGB loser."

He dismissed Putin's anointed successor Dmitry Medvedev as "a puppet," predicting elections in March would not bring any change. "I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel."

Full story here.

The Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, has resigned after being defeated in a vote of confidence in the upper house of parliament, the Senate.

Mr Prodi, who had led his centre-left coalition for 20 months, was defeated by five votes, despite the support of several unelected lifetime senators.

Mr Berlusconi announced a surprise party at his house in Rome.

"We will say what we want to do in the first 100 days of our government," he said.

Full story here.

Watch Justice Louise Arbour reading Indictment of Milosevic and her interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour: The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour, announces the indictment of Milosevic and four others for war crimes (May 27 1999)

CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviews Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal (May 27 1999)

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