"Ukraine’s president given more control" by Associated Press | October 2, 2010
KIEV — Ukraine’s Constitutional Court yesterday shifted key powers from parliament to the presidency, a move that boosted the influence of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, but also threw the country into legal uncertainty.
Why? It's a constitutional court.
The court invalidated a controversial political reform passed at the height of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests. Those amendments significantly strengthened the legislature and weakened the president’s powers. The court ruled that those changes were unconstitutional and returned to the president the power to name the prime minister and other officials....
Some observers said the decision raises questions about the legitimacy of the current president and parliament and that new elections must be called.
Why? They won the vote!
Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko called for immediate presidential and parliamentary elections....
You just lost!
Related: Ding-Dong, the Witch is Dead!
Apparently not. Where is Chrissy O'Donnell when you need her.
Thanks, Delaware!
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"Train crashes into stalled bus at Ukraine crossing, killing 43 and injuring 8" by Associated Press | October 13, 2010
KIEV — A locomotive rammed through a stalled passenger bus on a railroad crossing in eastern Ukraine yesterday, killing 43 people and injuring 8 others as the bus was pushed 300 yards down the tracks....
Road and railway accidents are common in Ukraine, where the roads are in bad condition, vehicles are poorly maintained, and drivers and passengers routinely disregard safety and traffic rules....
Isn't that a bit like blaming the victim.
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It's all in the democracy, of course -- provided you vote for the guy we want:
"Kyrgyzstan protest targets nationalist party" by Associated Press / October 7, 2010
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Protesters stormed the headquarters of a leading political party in the capital of Kyrgyzstan yesterday, ratcheting up tensions a few days ahead of a decisive parliamentary election in the Central Asian country.
The protesters seized the building of the nationalist Ata-Zhurt party, which includes several representatives of the government led by former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted during bloody street protests in April.
Bakiyev is the CIA's man-in-exile (in Belarus these days). Kyrgyzstan has called for extradition; however, that has gone nowhere and remains unmentioned here.
Ata-Zhurt is expected to make a strong showing in Sunday’s election, with independent polls putting it in third place with at least 10 percent of the vote.
People identifying themselves as relatives of people killed in the April riots said former Bakiyev officials should be held accountable for the deaths of people killed by government troops.
The protesters gathered outside Parliament in the morning calling for Ata-Zhurt to be disqualified from the vote. Angry demonstrators later congregated at party headquarters and forced their way into the building.
Men looted the building and threw banners and leaflets out of the window onto a bonfire below.
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Also see: The Crown Jewel of Central Asia
Just wanted you to know why it is of interest.
And what was the result of the rigged vote?
"No majority expected in Kyrgyzstan vote" by New York Times | October 11, 2010
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Supporters of the government that took power after an uprising in April appeared to be on the way to winning seats in a new Parliament, but were likely to be compelled to form a coalition with at least some figures from the previous government, according to preliminary results from an election in Kyrgyzstan yesterday.
If the pattern holds, no single party will have a majority, muddying the political waters in a country where both the United States and Russia have military bases.
The elections were the first here since a new Constitution was adopted in June, making Kyrgyzstan the first parliamentary republic in Central Asia, where nations are typically ruled by authoritarian leaders. The total vote is expected by later today.
Last spring, members of the interim government had expected the election to pivot on issues of political freedoms and corruption in the government of the ousted president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev.
Their criticism of his rule included allegations that United States military contractors had made financial deals with his family and associates.
Yeah, his SON was getting CUTS and KICKBACKS from the CONTRACTS!
Instead, according to analysts and politicians here, security became the pivotal issue after an outbreak of ethnic violence in June between the Kyrgyz majority and Uzbek minority killed at least 400 people.
And CUI BONO?
Since then, Kyrgyz nationalist parties and parties whose candidates include former generals and police officials, some affiliated with the former government of Bakiyev, have gained ground.
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Also see: Kyrgyz Concentration Camps Expand As Crisis Calms Down
That coverage sure faded quick (our guy responsible, that's why).
Yup, Baltics were freed from the Russians and liberated to.... bankers?
"Latvia’s coalition to continue reforms" by Associated Press | October 4, 2010
RIGA, Latvia — Members of Latvia’s center-right coalition government yesterday agreed to keep working together after voters backed their plans for painful reforms required by an international bailout program to fix the Baltic country’s crippled economy....
I guess if you have been under someone's boot for so long you grab it and put it back on your throat.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has promised further austerity measures to comply with the terms of a $10.3 billion bailout package designed by the International Monetary Fund and European nations to help Latvia stave off bankruptcy.
Latvia’s economy started nose-diving in 2008, plunging 25 percent in two years — the worst drop in the European Union.
The next government will have to make some $770 million in both tax hikes and budget cuts to bring the 2011 budget deficit down to 6 percent as mandated by the IMF-led deal.
All so BANKERS can GET PAID!
Dombrovskis he would meet with the center-left Harmony Center to find common ground for future cooperation.
Translation: It doesn't matter which party you elect or change you make.
Greece found that out, the U.S. now knows it, and so should every other nation. Governments serve banks and monied interests, not people.
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Good thing there are "terrorists" out there to fight!
"Militants kill 23 soldiers in Tajikistan" by Associated Press / September 20, 2010
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — At least 23 soldiers were killed in Tajikistan after a convoy was ambushed by heavily armed Islamic militants, a devastating blow to an impoverished nation that shares a poorly secured border with Afghanistan.
The military convoy was heading for eastern Rasht district, an area near the border with Afghanistan, when it was attacked in a valley yesterday, Defense Ministry spokesman Faridun Makhmadaliyev said today....
The attack comes amid rising tension following a string of terrorist blasts and a large-scale prison escape by Islamist insurgents and government opponents.
The gunmen are believed to have included citizens from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as fighters from the volatile southern Russian region of Chechnya, Makhmadaliyev said.
The attackers were led by Mullo Abdullo, a radical Islamic commander who came to prominence during the civil war that devastated this former Soviet republic in the 1990s, Makhmadaliyev said.
Abdullo fled to Afghanistan after the end of the civil war in 1997, but he is believed to have returned to his native country some time last year in an effort to overthrow the government led by President Emomali Rakhmon.
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Let's bring it on back in the USSR, readers:
"Gunmen kill 3 in Chechen Parliament attack; Assailants wound more than dozen, then die under fire" by Michael Schwirtz New York Times / October 20, 2010
MOSCOW — Heavily armed gunmen burst into the Parliament building of Chechnya, in southern Russia, yesterday morning, killing at least three people and wounding more than a dozen before the assailants were killed by police officers or by their own explosives, officials said.
The assailants, including one suicide bomber, sprayed automatic rifle fire and set off at least one explosion in one of the most brazen assaults to occur for some time in Chechnya, a region in the volatile North Caucasus where violence linked to a simmering Islamist insurgency is common....
Russian television showed panicked workers, some with wounds, stumbling past corpses to flee the Parliament grounds, while heavily armored police officers in helmets and bulletproof jackets raced in....
No one immediately took responsibility for the attack, though it bore all the hallmarks of similar violence carried out by the region’s Islamist insurgents.
That's the AmeriKan corporate media's clue that this was a western intelligence false flag.
An embattled, though still potent, force, the insurgency arose from the remains of a fierce separatist movement that kept Russian forces at bay during nearly a decade of intermittent war in Chechnya that began in the mid-1990s.
At a parliamentary session in Grozny held later yesterday despite the attacks, Kadyrov accused the insurgents of seeking to spread “chaos and anarchy’’ through the region.
And DESTABILIZE RUSSIA and give them problems to keep them busy as USrael begins the WWIII. It will be a lot harder for Russia to help Iran if Georgia and these other places are erupting into chaos.
“Today’s incident shows once again that these remaining gangs are truly devils,’’ he said on his website. “They have no humanity and have nothing in common with Islam. They are not human beings.’’
I agree.
Human rights groups say the Kremlin has given Kadyrov tacit approval to wage a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and murder against suspected insurgents.
Being an AmeriKan citizen means I can't complain.
Russia has acknowledged that counterinsurgency tactics have failed to address the poverty that has contributed to the militancy.
U.S. still hasn't learned that lesson.
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Related: The Return of "Al-CIA-Duh" to Russia
Did they ever really leave?
