East Germany’s last leader accuses Gorbachev of duplicity

October 3rd, 2009 SYDNEY - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was Saturday accused of kowtowing to China over his decision not to meet the Dalai Lama when the exiled Tibetan leader visits Australia in December. Rudd braved Beijing's displeasure and met the Dalai Lama in 2007 when he was leader of the opposition Labour Party but has kept him at bay since taking office after the November 2007 election.

September 28th, 2009 LAHORE - Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has admitted that his government's secret agreement with the Taliban had backfired. The Daily Times quoted Musharraf, as saying that the Taliban had misled his administration.

September 24th, 2009 Germany's Merkel wins voters with low-key styleBERLIN — A decade ago, Angela Merkel was known to Germans mainly for a famously bad haircut that made her the butt of jokes. Today, as Germany's chancellor, she's widely considered the most powerful woman on the planet — and she's the one making the jokes.

September 6th, 2009 Germany's Merkel launches re-election campaignBERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel has kicked off her conservative party's campaign for the Sept. 27 German election by calling for a center-right coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats.

September 4th, 2009 LONDON - Former President of USSR Mikhail Gorbachev has criticized Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for failing to fight corruption and for rolling back democracy in the country. Gorbachev attacked Putin in an exclusive interview to The Times over his failure to convict the killers of prominent Kremlin critics such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko.

July 24th, 2009 Strike averted at Germany's Bayreuth FestivalBAYREUTH, Germany — Union leaders say they have signed an agreement with organizers of the Bayreuth Festival, avoiding a strike one day before the world-famous Wagner celebration was to begin. Ver.di union spokesman Hans Kraft says workers "are relieved" because they achieved what they wanted.

July 7th, 2009 Obama has busy schedule in Moscow on TuesdayMOSCOW — President Barack Obama's busy Tuesday in Russia includes a session with the man some say is the still the real power in Moscow. Obama and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will have a working breakfast at Putin's dacha.

June 9th, 2009 China warns honor for Dalai Lama will hurt tiesBEIJING — China expressed its indignation Tuesday at an honor given to the Dalai Lama by the city of Paris, saying it would seriously harm Beijing's relations with France. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe conferred a certificate of honorary citizenship on the Tibetan spiritual leader at a ceremony Sunday in Paris' gilded City Hall.

May 29th, 2009 Official who backed abortive Soviet coup diesMOSCOW — Soviet Communist Party official Oleg Shenin, who played an active part in an abortive attempt to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, has died in Moscow, the Russian Communist Party said Friday. He was 71. The Communist Party's statement said Shenin died Thursday, but did not give a cause of death.

May 14th, 2009 LONDON - Mikhail Gorbachev, the erstwhile Soviet Union's last president, has said that Europe still misunderstands Russia nearly two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed. Gorbachev, who resigned in 1991, said Russia does not want military conflict but suggested it should be treated as an equal.

May 13th, 2009 Gorbachev: Europe misunderstands RussiaMOSCOW — Mikhail Gorbachev said Wednesday that Europe still misunderstands Russia nearly two decades after the Soviet collapse, and he dismissed as nonsense portrayals of his country as an aggressive force. Gorbachev, who resigned as the Soviet Union's last president when the Cold War superpower disintegrated in 1991, said Russia does not want military conflict but suggested it should be treated as an equal.

April 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to help his then American counterpart Ronald Reagan in case the United States was attacked from outer space. Gorbachoev was appearing on Tuesday's Charlie Rose show on PBS along with George Shultz, Reagan's Secretary of State during the Gorbachev era.

March 31st, 2009 MOSCOW - A Russian academic has predicted that the United States will disintegrate into six blocs by the summer of 2010, and warned that world leaders attending the second G-20 Summit in London will not be able to reverse the global recession or halt the inevitable collapse of the US economy. In his interview with Sky News, Professor Igor Panarin said he came up with his grim forecast back in 1998 while analyzing the parallels between the Soviet Union in its final years and the current situation in the US.

March 27th, 2009 MOSCOW - To many of today's Russians, Communism is a hazy thing, referenced only in their parent's stories and their own vague memories of the scarcity of the post-Soviet 1990s. And with good reason.

March 5th, 2009 COLOMBO - Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels amid ceasefire calls from India and the international community. 'We will not trust the terrorist group and go for a ceasefire,' Wickramanayake told Sri Lankan parliament.