France has a long good relationship with Russia and Russians. Before Soviet Union, the Russian elite spoke French and even among other Russians. Most of them were educated in France, many emigrated to France when the Bolsheviks took power and a lot died there.
The good relationship between the French and the Russians lasts to this day. So, when the news first broke that France could sell Russia an advanced war ship, I had no doubt …

“I could have got more out. I could have got more. I don’t know. If I’d just… I could have got more.”
“Oskar, there are eleven hundred people who are alive because of you. Look at them.”
“If I’d made more money… I threw away so much money. You have no idea. If I’d just…”
“There will be generations because of what you did.”
“I didn’t do enough!”

China’s population of internet users jumped by nearly a third to 384 million at the end of last year, Reuters reports.
A report from the state China Internet Network Information Center underscored the growing scope of the internet in the country.
Throughout 2009, the number of Chinese internet users grew by 86 million — more than the total population of Germany — or a rise of 28.9 per cent compared to the end of 2008.
The survey, based …

The FBI published fresh digitally age progressed photographs of terrorist Osama bin Laden to try to track down the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian reports.
In a first age progressed mugshot, he is portrayed in western clothes with wavy grey and black hair and a trimmed beard; a second shows the terrorist leader in his traditional outfit, with a white turban and a flowing, but greyer, beard.
Forensic artists used digital enhancement to modify bin Laden’s features in …

Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Britons to donate to an emergency appeal for Haiti after the Government pledged more than £6 million in aid, ITN reports.
Brown called for the whole world to respond as the first UK search teams arrived in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“The problem at the moment is that there are still many, many people who are trapped or buried under rubble, and we do not know the full scale of that catastrophe,” Brown …

Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said that hundreds of thousands of people have died in Haiti’s earthquake, CNN reports.
Haitian authorities also said that the powerful quake destroyed most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. A top envoy called it a “major catastrophe.”
Haiti’s first lady, Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour, reported that “most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed” and that many Government buildings had…

A French catholic priest says that newly-revealed mass graves indicate there may be as many as 1.5 million additional Holocaust victims.
Father Patrick Despois told a meeting of Jewish organisations in New York that he has discovered 700 additional extermination sites in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
“This killing began on the first day of the war, on 23rd June, 1941, and finished the last day of the war,” he said. “Many people think that it was finished when …

Google said that they are ready to close down their business and quit China because of the country’s increasing censorship, the Daily Telegraph reports.
In a head-to-head confrontation with the Chinese Government, the company said that they will pull out of the country unless they are allowed to provide a totally uncensored service.
After the announcement, Google’s China website immediately began to offer reports and images of the Tiananmen Square massacre and other highly sensitive events that …

A powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti’s capital yesterday, toppling everything from simple shacks to the ornate National Palace and the headquarters of UN peacekeepers, thousands of people are feared dead.
The earthquake was the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years and the damage of the quake is staggering, the Associated Press reports. The dead and injured lay in the streets even as strong aftershocks rippled through…

A mysterious remote-control bomb killed Iran’s top nuclear scientist today, Arutz 7 reports.
Iran’s Government confirmed that the victim, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was a lecturer in nuclear energy and that he was a senior nuclear scientist. No suspects in the killing have been arrested.
It is not known if he was directly involved in developing Iran’s nuclear facilties, but Government media stated that he was a “staunch supporter” of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

China ended 100 years of US dominance of the motor industry yesterday when it was officially named the world’s biggest car market, the Daily Mail reports.
Days after it was confirmed as the largest global exporter, China broke an American stranglehold which had started with the development of the Ford Model T.
The figures underline the country’s growing status and power in the world. It is also on track to supplant Japan as the world’s second largest …

Rivers, seas and other water bodies in urban India are going to waste, with untreated water flowing into them like never before as nearly 90% of the liquid sewage — 38.254 billion litres — generated daily by cities that flows into streams, rivers and sea doesn’t met environment norms, Hindustan Times reports.
Water waste generated by cities, where 36 per cent of the country’s people live, is polluting over 70 per cent of the water sources, …

US President Barack Obama made a significant discovery yesterday when he finally noticed that the US is at war against terrorists, especially al-Qaida, who haven’t, despite Obama’s wishful thinking, stopped plotting devastating terrorist attacks against the United States and the rest of the Free World.
“We are at war, we are at war against al-Qaida,” Obama said yesterday. “We will do whatever it takes to defeat them.”

The car of one of Iran’s opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, was hit by gunfire in the northern town of Qazvin, al-Jazeera reports.
Karroubi, a reformist candidate in last June’s disputed presidential election, was visiting Qazvin to attend a mourning ceremony for opposition protesters when he was attacked. The car was shot at when Karroubi was leaving the ceremony, but it was an armoured car, so only the windows were damaged.
Karroubi was uninjured in the attack.
The attackers …

Churches in Malaysia were bracing themselves for further attacks by Muslim protesters today, hours after two arson attacks, apparently provoked by a controversy over the use by Christians of the word Allah, The Times reports.
Police were increasing their patrols of areas around churches and Christian communities were hiring security guards, after a Protestant church in the capital Kuala Lumpur was set on fire by a petrol bomb in the early hours of the morning. Muslim …

Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is part of a bid to take over struggling Swedish car maker Saab, the Independent reports.
The billionaire has teamed up with the Luxembourg-based investment company Genii Capital, which recently invested in Renault’s racing team.
Saab have been put up for sale by owner GM as part of a major restructuring operation, and a bid deadline passed yesterday.
The US car-making giant have been trying to sell Saab since January last year and …