Kavkaz

Finland is calling on Russia’s secret police, the FSB, to stop levying extortion fees for crossing the border with Finland. The demand includes both the illegal fees that had been charged by FSB border guards at the Svetogorsk crossing adjacent to Imatra, as well as so-called legal ones.

The chauvinistic Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday bristled at Ukrainian officials’ push for declaring a Russian-provoked  Great Famine that killed up to 15 million people as genocide. Up to 15 million Ukrainians died in the 1932-33 Great Famine, which was provoked by Russians as part of their campaign to

U.S. and world emergency crude oil reserves could replace a complete shut-off of Iranian oil exports for 18 months, avoiding an estimated 1 billion in damage to the American economy, the Government Accountability Office said on Tuesday.

The spiritual leader of English and Welsh Roman Catholics said on Wednesday that he wished to make efforts for a warmer relationship between the British Catholic and “Russian Orthodox” churches according to Russian media.

Chechen Mujahideen armed with subbarrel grenade launchers attacked a Russian occupation base in the Kargalinovskya village in the district of Shelkovskaya late Thursday, October 5, 2006, according to Russian media.  

China has beamed a ground-based laser at U.S. spy satellites over its territory, a U.S. agency said, in an action that exposed the potential vulnerability of space systems that provide crucial data to American troops and consumers around the world.  

The international forecaster editor Bob Chapman writes: This past Saturday in Venezuela, it was announced that a sniper with a long-range rifle and a motorcycle to escape was captured … his target was President Hugo Chavez Frias.

Israel’s army chief sacked a top general on Wednesday for criticizing the Israeli government’s policy and the military’s conduct during the recent offensive in Lebanon, the BBC reported.

The UK underestimates the threat to its future security posed by Russia, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox has warned. Addressing a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference, Dr Fox said Russia was increasing its defence spending this year by 25%, BBC News reported.

A Canadian firm in Halifax is suing the Russian government for US million in a last-ditch legal push to regain its investment in a Moscow hotel that was suddenly occupied by armed Russian militants two years ago, the Canadian Press reported.