Cyprus official: US will get Russian spy’s laptop
The confiscated laptop and other items belonging to an alleged Russian spy who vanished will be turned over to U.S. authorities, Cyprus' justice minister said on Tuesday.
Loucas Louca said he will agree to a U.S. request for the laptop, three USB memory sticks and a digital camera belonging to 54-year-old Christopher Metsos.
Louca said the handover will go ahead after Cyprus Attorney General Petros Clerides advised that information Cypriot police retrieved from the items legally warrants their transfer to U.S. authorities.
The items were seized on June 29 when Metsos was arrested trying to board a flight to Budapest, Hungary after a 12-day stay on the east Mediterranean island. They were not returned to Metsos when a Cyprus court released him on $33,000 bail on June 30, after which he promptly disappeared.
Metsos was among 11 people indicted on charges of conspiring to act as secret agents in the United States on behalf of the SVR, the Russian Federation's successor to the infamous KGB.
Metsos was the espionage ring's accused paymaster.
The other 10 people arrested in the United States were sent back to Moscow after pleading guilty, part of a swap for prisoners in Russia.
Metsos disappearance rekindled memories of Cold War cloak-and-dagger intrigue, but deeply embarrassed Cypriot authorities. Cypriot president Dimitris Christofias deflected U.S. Justice department criticism, saying U.S. authorities were slow in providing certain documents to Cypriot police.
Louca confirmed earlier this month that Metsos had assumed the identity of a dead five-year-old Canadian boy to obtain a passport.
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Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it is known that the information is in unauthorized hands.
See clandestine HUMINT for the basic concepts of such information collection, and subordinate articles such as clandestine HUMINT operational techniques and clandestine HUMINT asset recruiting for discussions of the "tradecraft" used to collect this information.
2 killed, 5 hurt in Russian market shooting
Gunmen opened fire on security guards at a provincial food market in the southern Russian city of Samara on Saturday, killing at least two and wounding at least five other people, investigators said.
At least six attackers arrived at the market in three cars and opened fire before fleeing, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Five people were hospitalized, it said.
Even the smallest of Russian enterprises employs security guards, who are often in the line of fire when business disputes turn violent. State television reported the Samara market was changing ownership.
Russian news agencies earlier reported 14 had been hurt in the shooting.
Meanwhile, in the country's volatile North Caucasus region — where such violence is part of daily life — three soldiers in Dagestan were killed when assailants attacked their convoy in a drive-by shooting, according to police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov.
Around the same time, the top official in a village in Dagestan's Kizlyarsky region was in a separate attack, Gasanov said.
The North Caucasus suffers from a militant Islamist insurgency seeking separatism from Russia. Human rights activists say many of their attacks are spurred by kidnappings, torture and extra-judicial killings of criminal suspects and civilians by the authorities, who deny such allegations. Some of the violence is also attributed to criminality and business disputes.
In another North Caucasus province, Ingushetia, a well-known local businessman shot dead a university official to whom he was related, the state ITAR-Tass news agency cited police as saying.
Ruslan Malsagov, who headed the Ingushetia State University's economics department, was killed outside his home in the province's largest city, Nazran, by entrepreneur Magomed Malsagov, Tass reported. The attacker was killed along with two other people — also relatives — in a shootout when police cornered him, the report said.
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The Russian people (русские, russkiye) are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.
The English term Russians is used to refer to the citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity (see demographics of Russia for information on other ethnic groups inhabiting Russia); in Russian, the demonym Russian is translated as rossiyanin (россиянин, plural rossiyane), while the ethnic Russians, are referred to as russkiye (sg. русский, russkiy). According to the 2002 census, ethnic Russians make up about 80% of the population of Russia.[
Russian cargo vessel misses space station
A faulty radio link forced an unmanned Russian cargo ship to abort its docking at the International Space Station on Friday, U.S. and Russian space officials said.
The glitch between the two vehicles occurred about 25 minutes before the Progress ship was due to automatically park itself at a berthing slip on the station's Russian Zvezda module.
Instead, Progress floated past the station at a safe distance of about 2 miles, said NASA spokesman Rob Navias, adding that the six-member Russian-American crew was never in any danger.
Interfax quoted the station's commander, cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, as telling Russian mission control that the Progress was "spinning uncontrollably" before disappearing from view.
But Russian space agency deputy head Vitaly Davydov later said the ship was not out of control.
"The Progress ship and the international space station are in working order and reliable communication with them is being maintained," Davydov said on state-run Rossiya-24 television.
The Progress M-06M blasted off on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, packed with 2.5 tonnes of cargo including fuel, food, water, equipment and spare parts for life-support gear.
At the time the radio link was lost, the station commander was trying to activate a backup docking system aboard the space station, NASA said.
Russian flight controllers did not know what impact, if any, the manual docking system setup had on the communications equipment.
No additional docking attempts will be made for at least two days, the space agencies said.
The ship was the 38th Progress vehicle sent to the orbiting space station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations.
In addition to Skvortsov, the station's crew includes cosmonauts Mikhail Korniyenko and Fyodor Yurchikhin, and NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Shannon Walker.
Legal facts :
Lakeside contains many well preserved historic buildings. In 2001 Chris Thomas documented all the homes and buildings within the gates of Lakeside, and counted a total of 890, although more have been built since then along the Oak Avenue extension and still others as in-fill projects. The community is largely residential with a small business/shopping area near Central Park. The Lakeside Association owns and operates a number of large assembly buildings:
Hoover Auditorium (Third St. between Walnut and Central) South Auditorium (Sixth St. between Walnut and Central) Orchestra Hall (corner of Second and Walnut) Wesley Lodge (Fifth St. between Walnut and Central) C. Kirk Rhein Jr.Center for the Living Arts(corner of Sixth and Walnut) WoHoMis Lodge (corner of Central and Fifth)
Places of Worship: Bradley Temple (corner of Cedar and Third) Lakeside United Methodist Church (corner of Fifth and Central) Chapel in the Woods (outdoor space along Maple past Seventh) Hoover Auditorium (Third St between Walnut and Cantral)
There is also a small local museum, Heritage Hall, at the corner of Maple Avenue and Third Street.
The fountain at Lakeside Hotel was built by the late landscaper Robert L. Barna, and two of his sons Jimmy J. Barna (Landscape/Architect), and Steven C. Barna.
Protection Dog Breeds
Protection Dogs
He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion. ~ Unknown
The above given quote can best describe dogs and their unconditional love and support for their masters and families. A loving dog is a friend for life and expects nothing from you, as it lavishes love in its perfect form and protects the members of your family till its least breath. Protection or guard dogs make an ideal guard for their house. They are extremely devoted to their master and also very bold and fearless. Making a best protection dog breeds list is a chance to learn more about these wonderful animals.
US-Russian space duo return to Earth from ISS
A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The capsule --- ferrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev -- landed in the vast steppe near Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned, Russia's Mission Control said.
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The Russian Federal Space Agency (Russian: Федеральное космическое агентство России Federal'noye kosmicheskoye agentstvo Rossii), commonly called Roscosmos (Роскосмос Roskosmos) and abbreviated as FKA (ФКА) and RKA (РКА), is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Russian: Российское авиационно-космическое агентство Rossiyskoe aviatsionno-kosmicheskoe agentsvo, commonly known as "Rosaviakosmos").
Headquarters of Roscosmos are located in Moscow. Main Mission Control space flight operations center is located in a nearby city of Korolev. Cosmonauts Training Centre (GCTC) is in Star City. Launch facilities used are Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (with most launches taking place there, both manned and unmanned) and Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia used primarily for unmanned flights of military designations.
Since his appointment as General Director in March 2004, Anatoly Perminov has led Russia's efforts to consolidate its space program.
Dozens held in European crackdown on Russian mafia
At least 69 people have been arrested in a crackdown on the Russian mafia in several European countries, Spanish police said on Monday.
They said 24 people were detained in Spain in the operation, which was "ongoing".
At least 45 others were arrested in "different European countries".
In Spain, the operation was led by a special police unit aimed at fighting drug trafficking and organised crime.
Spanish national radio said most of those held were Russians and were arrested for laundering the proceeds of drug-trafficking and corruption.
Related information:
The Russian Mafia (Russian: Русская мафия, Russkaya mafiya) or Bratva (Братва; slang for "brotherhood", which applies to all gangs, including rivals) — often transliterated as Mafiya — are names designating a diverse group of organized crime syndicates originating in the former Soviet Union, Russia and the CIS. Since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, these groups have amassed considerable worldwide power and influence.[1] They are active in virtually every part of Russian society.[2] Russian criminals are internationally active in illegal oil trade, smuggling of weapons and nuclear material and money laundering.[2]
In December 2009 Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian National Central Bureau of Interpol, stated: "Certainly, there is crime involving our former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad".
