Russian Forces Inflict Deadly Diseases on Chechen Civilians

GROZNY - Russian forces have used biological warfare on a massive scale within Chechnya. Using force, they have injected polio and other diseases, including dysentery, tetanus and rabies into the civilian population. The Russian army made a policy of forced injection of the viral sources of these diseases in women and children. The Russian Army employed prisoners and psychotic mental ward patients to perform these vile acts, as even the Russian soldiers refused to commit such crimes. Additionally, 30,000 children ranging in age from 1-16, are severely maimed or injured from the effects of bombing, artillery and ground fire which occurred during the war. 2,000 are in need of emergency surgery within one month or they may perish.

Belarus Leader Wants Orthodoxy as State Ideology

MINSK - Quoteworthy: "I am ready to put my signature under all of the (Ten) Commandments." - Hardline Belarussian President Aleksander Lukashenko, a once self-proclaimed atheist, who said October 24th that Orthodoxy should replace communism as the country’s ideology. In a speech at Minsk University Lukashenko said, "We should restore that system but with Orthodoxy at the center rather than Marxism-Leninism." A former instructor in the Soviet Army, Lukashekno declared "I used to be an atheist but I have now become an Orthodox believer... We have already done a lot to increase the role of the Orthodox church (in Belarus),” he said at the university. Metropolitan Filaret, head of Belarussian Orthodox Church, a de facto branch of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, has begun to appear alongside Lukashenko at public events. Restoration of Orthodoxy as the official state ideology would take Belarus even further along that road than Russia has taken in the last two years.

Iraqi Children in Serious Danger

BAGHDAD - Some 4,500 children under the age of five die in Iraq each month because of hunger and disease, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on October 28th, as it made an urgent appeal to international donors to support U.N. humanitarian efforts in Iraq. The U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) joined UNICEF in the appeal, saying sharply deteriorating conditions in Iraq would worsen with the onset of winter. The situation was dismal and would become critical for tens of thousands of women and children living below the poverty line, senior U.N. officials warned.

Israel: Preparing for War with Syria?

TEL AVIV - The Israeli defense establishment has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase its budget by more than $1 billion to prepare for a possible war with Syria, a published report said October 28th. The Ha’aretz newspaper said that the defense establishment last week presented Netanyahu with their plans for strengthening the army to prepare for war, in view of the Syrian threat.

Pakistan President Fires Bhutto, Dissolves Assembly

ISLAMABAD - On November 4, Pakistani President Farooq Leghari fired Prime Minister Bhutto and her cabinet on Tuesday and dissolved the National Assembly. He set Feb. 3 as the date for a general election. Miraj Khalid, director of the Islamic University and former speaker of the House during Bhutto's first term in office, was named by Leghari as interim prime minister. Leghari--Bhutto's former ally--has been under increasing pressure to use his constitutional power to dismiss her. She is accused of corruption and mismanagement.