In a possible sign that political tensions are easing in Ukraine, President Viktor F. Yanukovich pardoned the country’s second-most-prominent political prisoner on Sunday, but his intentions concerning his biggest rival, who is also in custody, remained unclear.
The pardoned prisoner, Yuri V. Lutsenko, is a former interior minister whose arrest in December 2010 on charges that he had abused his office raised concerns in the European Union and the United States that Ukraine’s democracy was at risk. Those worries were heightened the following year when the police arrested Mr. Yanukovich’s biggest rival, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and the leader of the political opposition.
Mr. Yanukovich also freed several lower-profile figures on Sunday, including a former ecology minister, Georgy Filipchuk. But about a dozen other opposition figures remain in prison.
The pardon decree, published by Ukraine’s government, laid out a host of factors that went into the decision, including the prisoners’ former service to the state, their family affairs and their behavior while in prison.
The statement did not mention a campaign mounted by the European Union to win the release of prisoners in exchange for an agreement on broadened trade relations that includes provisions on human rights and the rule of law.
(There’s more at the source.)
Both sides claimed victory in a presidential election in Montenegro on Sunday, raising the prospect of a dispute over the largely ceremonial post in the tiny Adriatic country as it bids to join the European Union.
With no independent exit poll or official word from the state electoral commission, both incumbent Filip Vujanovic and opposition challenger Miodrag Lekic took to the airwaves to announce they had won.
Lekic compared his rival’s claim to a “coup d’etat”.
The president is largely a figurehead for Montenegro’s 680,000 people, with real power vested in the prime minister. But a Lekic victory would set up an awkward cohabitation and deal a significant blow to the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) after more than two decades in power.
Based on his camp’s own count, the DPS’s Vujanovic said he had won 51.3 percent of votes compared to 48.7 for Lekic, a former diplomat.
“This is the winning result,” Vujanovic said in a televised address.
The opposition Democratic Front said Lekic was ahead according to its own count, by 50.5 percent to 49.5.
“I can announce that the people of Montenegro have entrusted me with the post of president,” Lekic said in a televised address. Reacting to Vujanovic’s own victory claim, he added: “We will not accept theft.”
(Source.)
Voices from the Inferno: Holocaust Survivors Describe the Last Months in the Warsaw Ghetto
This exhibition brings together excerpts from many hours of video testimony given by the survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and former combatants in the uprising. Some of the Jews of the ghetto succeeded in escaping the ghetto after the battle that raged there and survived in hiding on the Aryan side, under an assumed identity or in the forests. Others hid deep inside the bunkers in the ghetto, but were ultimately discovered by the Germans and deported to concentration and death camps. There were also the few who managed to survive among the ruins of the ghetto until the liberation. The majority of the Jews who took part in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising were murdered, whether during the brutal suppression of the uprising, while attempting to escape the burning ghetto, in the camps or on the Aryan side. Few survived the inferno; some of their testimonies are presented here.
This unique oral documentation enables us to shed new light on the fate of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising thereby enhancing our understanding of one of the central chapters in Holocaust history.
czechpartisan asked: Sorry about that, it must just be an issue with my browser, it appears to me as black text on a dark brownish background.
Hm, that’s…odd. I can see why it would be hard to read, though!
czechpartisan asked: Is there any way you can change your theme? It seems like the text is hard to read, and I want to be able to read quality blogs :)
Hm, I find it pretty easy to read - black on white is, in my opinion, the easiest sort of webpage to read, and the font is pretty clean. I’m not sure what would make it easier. If you (or anyone else) wants to recommend another theme that you find easier to read, please feel free. But I probably won’t use anything that isn’t also black on white (or possibly black on another very light color).
ETA: Some people said they preferred a sans serif font, so I changed it to Arial. Let me know if you have trouble reading that for whatever reason!
Some younger children and I were walking around there. Suddenly, we saw many young people marching in the street. They were playing musical instruments. It was a small band. For us children, it was a big deal at that time so we all followed them. They were lined up in columns. They were wearing beautiful clothes, some green and blue, white shirts. At that time, the komyugistn [Young Communist League members] used to wear uniforms. They were approaching the synagogue. They came to the synagogue, and they stopped and played. After playing, they set up a platform and a table, and we, all children, were there, because we loved the band. One of them took out a paper and read aloud that religion was not good, and that the synagogue is evil, too. “We, the members of the Young Communist League, voted that the synagogue disturbed our work and was harmful to youth so it had to be closed.” So, some people went into the synagogue and they kicked out the old Jews who were praying there. The old Jews went out; they said they were not able to fight with Jews. All the young men were Jewish. After that, the komyugistn took a board, a hammer and some nails, and shut the door and put a notice on the front of the synagogue that it was closed by resolution of the Communist Youth Organization of the clothing factory. That was it. From that moment on, the synagogue did not exist any more.
This tankard was made in Jelgava, Latvia, ca. 1700.
It took me a moment to realize that the round decorations were coins. I did some cursory research and can’t figure out exactly where they’re from. Latvia was under Swedish rule at the time, but none of the Swedish coins from this time period seem to resemble the ones on this tankard. Any coin experts out there have an idea?
(Source.)
Proscansko Lake in Plitvice National Park, Croatia.
People sunbathe by the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Brrrr.
