As US President George W. Bush seeks to promote democracy around the globe, he paused to pay tribute yesterday to the sacrifice made by World War II soldiers who never came home from their fight against tyranny.
Bush was to spend yesterday, the 60th anniversary of the May 1945 signing of the Berlin armistice that ended the war in Europe, at the continent's third-largest cemetery for US veterans near here in Margraten.
"The alliance that won the war is remembered today in carefully tended cemeteries in Normandy, Margraten, St. Petersburg, and other places across Europe, where we recall brief lives of great honor," Bush said Saturday in Riga, Latvia. "We offer this pledge: We will always be grateful."
Bush was to finish the day in Moscow, where he and dozens of other world leaders are attending today's Red Square victory celebration that Russian President Vladimir Putin is staging on the day Russians regard as the V-E Day anniversary.
Bush and Putin were to meet last night, a day after the US president used a speech in the Baltic nation of Latvia to not-so-subtly nudge Russia to own up to its wartime past. In Russia, victory in the "Great Patriot War" is treasured as an unvarnished triumph, while many of Russia's neighbors see the Red Army's success as only the start of 50 years of brutal Soviet oppression.
Anger over that unacknowledged history remains potent in the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithunia and Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and given independence 14 years ago. With his stop in Latvia on the way to Moscow, including a meeting there with the leaders of all three Baltic states, Bush underscored their continuing grievances against Russia and offered a US model of acknowledging past mistakes as an example for Putin to follow.
"No good purpose is served by stirring up fears and exploiting old rivalries in this region," Bush said of Russia. "The interests of Russia and all nations are served by the growth of freedom that leads to prosperity and peace."
Bush has promised that such matters, part of Washington's broader concerns about Putin's commitment to democracy, will come up when the two meet -- first formally, then over dinner with their wives -- at the Russian leader's dacha.
There are a host of other items on the agenda for the leaders whose cooperation is crucial, such as stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons materials.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS