An estimated 175 people were arrested by police in Chicago early on Sunday, a day that saw protests spread out from the US to Australia, Asia and Europe. In Chicago, roughly one-tenth of the 2,000 protesters were arrested after refusing to leave Grant Park after it closed for the day. The park famously served as [...]
Archives: 16 October 2011
October 16, 2011
October 16, 2011
NATO gives Serbs until Monday to clear barricades
KFOR delivered an ultimatum to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo manning barricades at a border crossing in the breakaway region’s north: remove the obstacles by Monday, or else the international peacekeepers will step in and clear the road themselves. KFOR Commander Erhard Drews insisted that the barricades are preventing the freedom of movement in Kosovo for [...]
October 16, 2011
Legendary Bolshevik cruiser ‘Aurora’ flies Jolly Roger
Three young people climbed the mast of the famous cruiser “Aurora” in St. Petersburg and ran up a black flag where the revolutionary red Bolsheviks’ banner once fluttered. On October 16 eight young people managed to sneak onboard the ship, now a museum, while 30 of their friends watched them from shore. Five people were [...]
October 16, 2011
‘US behind every peace agreement Israel has made’
Israel and the Palestinians should resolve their conflict by themselves without the diplomatic Quartet’s help, stated Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. But such a step, argued journalist Jeff Barak, is impossible without US backing. According to Barak, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post, the members of the diplomatic Quartet – the UN, US, EU and [...]
October 16, 2011
Stability Delayed As Russia’s Elite Remains Jittery
The Power Vertical Matryoshka dolls depicting Russian and Soviet leaders One thing United Russia’s congress on September 24 was supposed to do was to provide the elite with some measure of certainty about the country’s future. With the question of the tandem settled and Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin a virtual certainty, everybody can [...]
October 16, 2011
Russian pilot jailed in U.S. ‘offered freedom’ for evidence against ‘arms dealer’ Bout
Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who has been sentenced to 20 years in jail in the United States for conspiring to smuggle cocaine to the country earlier this year, said he believed that his trial was linked to the prosecution of suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. “I was regularly forced to testify against him in [...]
October 16, 2011
October 16, 2011
Record-breaking OWS demo hits NYC
Up to 90 arrests have been made in New York as police tried to contain the largest Occupy Wall Street demonstration in the US. Thousands of demonstrators crowded into Times Square on Saturday during the ongoing city camp-out against big banks. Protesters in New York’s Lower Manhattan, where the “Occupy Wall Street” movement began on [...]
October 16, 2011
Comet Elenin: Cosmic ‘near miss’
The “Doomsday Comet” Elenin will make its closest approach to Earth on Sunday, when it is expected to come to within 22 million miles of our planet – an event widely feared. At the same time, astronomers say it poses little threat to our planet. In August, the comet started disintegrating when it was blasted [...]
October 16, 2011
Milan first step in KHL’s Western European expansion
The KHL is continuing its search for new members all across Europe, with a club from Italy getting ready to join the league next season. The choice of Milano Rossoblu hockey club to become the first Western European side in the league is not as exotic as it first seems. “We have a very long [...]
October 16, 2011
Israeli police use tear gas to disperse Palestinian protesters
The situation between Israelis and Palestinians is so tense that even a mere metal detector can ignite protests, which then end up being dispersed by tear gas. That is what happened in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday. Teachers and students refused to go through metal detectors at a checkpoint on their way [...]
October 16, 2011
Pro-Kremlin activists ‘cut power’ to opposition meeting
Activists from a pro-Kremlin youth group have cut off power to a building in south Russia where some of country’s most prominent opposition leaders were to hold a conference, the independent website grani.ru reported. Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin and Lev Ponomaryov were forced to hold a meeting with supporters in the pitch darkness after members [...]
October 16, 2011
Tensions rise between NY police and protesters
Tensions are rising in the ongoing standoff between the New York Police Department and “Occupy Wall Street” protesters who have rallied growing numbers of people. Protesters in New York’s Lower Manhattan, where the “Occupy Wall Street” movement began on September 17, marched to Times Square to rally at the offices of JP Morgan Chase Bank. [...]
October 16, 2011
EU: We don’t trust you but give us gas
The EU is investigating whether Russian gas giant Gazprom violated competition laws. Despite the distrust, Brussels says it wants a free flow of gas into the EU – a stance observers see as contradictory. Analysts have been speculating on the reasons behind the EU’s raids on Gazprom’s European offices at the beginning of October. Some [...]