ROME - An Italian parliamentary commission concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II - a theory long alleged but never proved, according to a draft report made available Thursday.

May 9, 2005

MOSCOW - In a once-unthinkable setting for a U.S. leader, President Bush took a place of honor on Red Square amid symbols of Soviet power Monday and saluted the greatest military victory of an empire formerly regarded as America's most-threatening enemy.

The European Union is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week and the squabbling over the signature Berlin Declaration, basically a birthday card to itself, seemed to indicate that those critics who described the EU in mid-life crisis might have a point.

It was called the Age of the Titans for good reason. Fire-breathing monsters such as the Type D were not only built to win races, but represent the honor and glory of a nation. For Autio Union, it would be an auspicious beginning under a new corporate banner.

Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, fellow citizens: Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the union. This year, we gather in this chamber deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead.

According to the New York Daily News, the government-initiated website "We The People" has been bombarded by petitions since the election.

Taylor Jones: It’s hard to “clear, hold and build” piles of rubble punctuated by poppy fields. Why re-enact the Charge of the Light Brigade? 

“We support the Arab revolutions in Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria but not Bahrain or Palestine. Obama looks like a fool to the world, pulling out of UNESCO, the UN Program for abused and starving children, just because Palestine was elected to join. ‘Collective Punishment’ like this harkens back to the Nazi and Soviet Union actions. Ask yourself how can Palestine negotiate it’s national borders with Israel if it has no national borders because it is not a nation? How many more wars and conflicts does the United States have to engage in because Israel won’t let Palestine become a nation?”

Three musicians will perform Sept. 20 in Melikian Hall at Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona, 8849 E. Cholla St., Scottsdale, to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is on his way to Austria to meet with European Union leaders on Iran, Iraq and other key issues.

MOSCOW - Mstislav Rostropovich played the cello with grace and verve - and lived his life offstage the same way. His death at age 80 takes away one of modern Russia's most compelling figures, admired both for his musical mastery and his defiance of Soviet repression.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has surfaced in Belarus to proclaim a “strategic partnership” with that forlorn and shunned fragment of the Soviet Union.

Stephen Hays Russell, guest commentary

MOSCOW - Thousands of Russians braved a pelting rain Tuesday to pay tribute to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, attending a formal mourning for the author, dissident and patriot that had all the trappings of an official lying-in-state ceremony.

Russia still is not much of a democracy, but that it’s even close is largely due to the energetic, if often erratic, efforts of its former president, Boris Yeltsin, who died this week at age 76.

Such an event was inconceivable during the darkest hours of the Cold War. But as history repeatedly teaches us, “never say never.”

MOSCOW -- A plane carrying 88 people crashed in central Russia, killing all on board, an emergency official said Sunday. The Boeing-737 traveling from Moscow to Perm went down about 3:40 a.m. Sunday, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.

At the outset of a busy week in which he was preparing to receive the Italian prime minister and to depart on a trip to India and Pakistan, President Bush took time to meet with two widows, Svyatlana Zavadskaya and Irina Krasovskaya.

One bit of unfinished business remaining from the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union was what to do with Vladimir Lenin, the architect of that unlamented 74-year excursion into totalitarianism.

Just as it’s necessary sometimes to stand up to a bellicose neighbor, it’s also important to know when to mend fences. And after more than four decades of being on the outs with Cuba, it’s time to pry the door open.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - President Bush, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hungary's bloody revolt against communist rule in this Eastern Europe nation, was urged Thursday to make sure the U.S. fight against terrorism doesn't stomp on human rights.