A senior Russian lawmaker says Moscow will deploy high-precision weapons near Poland, in response to a U.S. - Poland missile defense agreement signed in Warsaw last month.
Viktor Zavarzin, head of the defense committee in the State Duma, said Thursday Russia has new weapons that will be installed near the sites where Washington plans to deploy interceptor missiles.
Tags: Czech Republic, Government, Military, missile shield, Missiles, Nuclear weapons, Poland, Russia, U.S.
British citizens could be convicted in their absence by foreign courts for traffic, credit card or other criminal offences under plans approved in principle by the European Parliament.
The proposals would allow citizens to be extradited automatically under fast-track procedures at the request of another European Union country on the basis of a decision by the foreign court.
The overwhelming adoption by the Parliament of the proposals, which now go to the Council of Ministers, was condemned yesterday as “throwing habeas corpus out of the window”.
Philip Bradbourn, the Conservative justice and home affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, said: “This initiative would enable courts to pass judgments in absentia. It goes against one of the most fundamental corner-stones of British justice - that the accused has a right to defend himself at trial. If other EU countries want to go ahead with this proposal that’s their choice, but the British Government should have no part [of it].”
Tags: Czech Republic, EU, France, Germany, Government, habeas corpus, law, Politics, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, U.K.
Moscow has issued an extraordinary warning to the West that military assistance to Georgia for use against South Ossetia or Abkhazia would be viewed as a “declaration of war” by Russia.
The extreme rhetoric from the Kremlin’s envoy to NATO came as President Dmitry Medvedev stressed he will make a military response to US missile defence installations in eastern Europe, sending new shudders across countries whose people were once blighted by the Iron Curtain.
And Moscow also emphasised it was closely monitoring what it claims is a build-up of NATO firepower in the Black Sea.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) meets with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - the ‘real architect’ of the Georgia conflict - and the Security Council (unseen) in Sochi yesterday
The incendiary warning on Western military involvement in Georgia - where NATO nations have long played a role in training and equipping the small state - came in an interview with Dmitry Rogozin, a former nationalist politician who is now ambassador to the North Atlantic Alliance.
“If NATO suddenly takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia,” he stated.
Tags: Abkhazia, Czech Republic, Dmitry Medvedev, Georgia, Germany, Iran, Mikhail Saakashvili, Military, NATO, Poland, Politics, Russia, South Ossetia, Spain, U.S., Vladimir Putin, War
Don’t miss the “Key Points” at the end of the article.
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· Closer links needed to beat terrorism and crime
· Blueprint wants new force to patrol world flashpoints
A German and an Italian officer with the joint EU force Frontex check a lorry for illegal immigrants on the Polish border. The agency, which is seen as one model of future integration, patrols the EU’s frontiers. Photograph: Sven Kaestner/AP
Europe should consider sharing vast amounts of intelligence and information on its citizens with the US to establish a “Euro-Atlantic area of cooperation” to combat terrorism, according to a high-level confidential report on future security.
The 27 members of the EU should also pool intelligence on terrorism, develop joint video-surveillance and unmanned drone aircraft, start networks of anti-terrorism centres, and boost the role and powers of an intelligence-coordinating body in Brussels, said senior officials. Continue reading »
Tags: ACLU, biometric, biometrics, civil liberties, Czech Republic, DNA, EU, France, Germany, Government, New World Order, Police, Police State, Portugal, Slovenia, Surveillance, Sweden, terrorism, U.S., video surveillance
