• Missing Soviet war veteran found living in Afghanistan 33 years after combat

    Alexander Lawrentjew / dpa via AP

    Soviet war veteran Bakhretdin Khakimov went missing in action 33 years ago, but has now been found living under the name Sheikh Abdullah and working as a healer.

    By Reuters

    MOSCOW — A Soviet war veteran reported missing in action during fighting in Afghanistan 33 years ago has been found living as a local healer in the province of Herat, news agency Ria reported.

    The soldier, who was rescued by Afghans after being wounded in the first months after the Soviet Union's invasion in 1979, was tracked down by a Moscow-based group of war veterans.

    A native of the former Soviet Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, he now goes by the name of Sheikh Abdullah and has adopted the local dress and profession of the healer who nursed him back to health.


    The deputy head of the Afghan war veterans' committee said Abdullah, whose given name is Bakhretdin Khakimov, mostly had forgotten the Russian language and never tried to contact his relatives after suffering severe head trauma in the fighting.

    Alexander Lavrentyev, who met with Abdullah in Herat last month, said the veteran, who was 20 when he went missing, still bore the scars of his injury. His face is creased by a nervous tic and his hand and shoulder shake.

    "He was just happy he survived,'' Lavrentyev was quoted by Ria as saying at a presser in Moscow on Monday.

    The committee says it has found 29 of 264 soldiers still listed as missing from the bloody decade-long conflict. It said seven of those it contacted chose to stay in Afghanistan.

    Some 15,000 Soviet troops were killed in the fighting that followed the Soviet Union's incursion to support a communist vassal government in Kabul against Islamist mujahideen fighters armed by the United States.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Raul Castro mentions retirement, says Sunday speech will be 'interesting'

    Adalberto Roque / AFP - Getty Images

    Cuban President Raul Castro visits a mausoleum Friday dedicated to Soviet solders who died around the world. Outside the frame is visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Castro surprised those on hand when he mentioned retirement and urged reporters to pay close attention to a speech scheduled for Sunday.

    By Paul Haven, The Associated Press

    HAVANA -- Cuban President Raul Castro has unexpectedly raised the possibility of leaving his post, saying Friday that he is old and has a right to retire. But he did not say when he might do so or if such a move was imminent.

    The Cuban leader is scheduled to be sworn in to a new five-year term on Sunday. Castro urged reporters to listen to his speech that day.

    "I am going to be 82 years old," Castro said at a joint appearance with visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. "I have the right to retire, don't you think?"

    When reporters continued to shout questions about his plans for the next five years, Castro replied: "Why are you so incredulous?"

    Javier Galeano / AP

    Between them, former president Fidel Castro and brother Raul have ruled Cuba since the 1959 overthrow of U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista. One of the conditions the U.S. has stated for ending a decades-old embargo against its old Cold War enemy is that neither brother be in power.

    He said to listen carefully on Sunday.

    "It will be an interesting speech," he said. "Pay attention."

    Castro's tone was light and his comments came in informal remarks at a mausoleum dedicated to soldiers from the former Soviet Union who have died around the world.

    The Cuban leader has spoken before of his desire to implement a two-term limit for all Cuban government positions, including the presidency. He has also alluded to the limited time he has left to overhaul the island's weak Marxist economy.

    That has led many to speculate that this upcoming term would be his last, though term limits have never been codified into Cuban law.

    Most Havana residents had not heard about Castro's comments, which had not been reported on Cuban television. Many reacted with skepticism.

    "Who would they put in?" asked Marta Alvarez, a 45-year-old housewife walking through Old Havana. "But I don't think it would be now. It would happen in five years."

    Castro will be 86 when his next term ends in 2018. Up until now, all eyes had been on who would emerge as Castro's first and second vice presidents during Sunday's proceedings. The positions are currently occupied by two loyal octogenarians who fought in the 1959 revolution.

    Putting someone younger in one of those roles would be the first sign that Castro was settling on a potential next-generation successor, something he and his brother Fidel have never done, even as many comrades have succumbed to old age.

    As far back as December 2010, Castro began to reflect on his responsibility, and that of his aging generation, to right Cuba's economy, noting that the actuarial tables leave them few remaining years.

    "The time we have left is short, the task is enormous," he told lawmakers in his year-end speech that year. "I think we have an obligation ... to set (the country) on the right course."

    When Raul Castro does leave the political stage, it would end more than a half century of unbroken rule by the two brothers, who came to power in 1959 at the head of a revolution against U.S.-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista.

    Relations with the United States have been sour since shortly after the revolution. One of the key provisions of the 51-year U.S. economic embargo on Cuba stipulates that it cannot be lifted while either of the Castros is in power.

    Castro has implemented a series of economic and social reforms since taking over from his ailing brother in 2006, but the island is still ruled by one party. Fidel Castro is 86 and retired, and has seemed increasingly frail in recent appearances.

    Related: 

    Fidel Castro makes first extended public appearance since 2010

    Cuba's jailing of American contractor 'arbitrary,' UN panel concludes

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Listed by Stasi as killed in attempted escape from East Germany -- but alive all along

    By Reuters

    BERLIN -- For 31 years, Rene Seiptius had been counted among the thousands of people killed while trying to escape the confines of communist East Germany.

    As it turns out, he was alive all along.

    "I can't explain how it could have happened," Seiptius told Reuters on Monday.

    Seiptius first attempted to cross the deadly strip of land that once separated East Germany from the West in 1981, when he was 17.

    Retired teacher's courageous crusade: Tackling neo-Nazi hate

    He and two friends managed to tiptoe past a row of minefields but they triggered fire from an automatic spring gun. One of Seiptius' crew died, and their cover was blown.

    Plans to close a seniors' center in a building that was used by East Germany's Stasi spies during the Cold War have prompted its elderly patrons to take action: They've occupied the building. NBC News' Carlo Angerer reports from Berlin.

    They were quickly arrested by border guards. But records kept by East Germany's notorious secret police, known as the Stasi, show Seiptius as having died during that botched escape attempt.

    'Life doesn't stop with retirement': Are these German protesters the world's oldest squatters?


    "I've been alive for the last 48 years," he said.

    Eventually his name found its way to a list of all the people who had died along Germany's East-West border compiled by a museum in Berlin.

    From Cold Warriors to targeting trafficking: US military shifts focus in Europe

    It was only the second case of an incorrect entry to have surfaced in the past half a century, said Alexandra Hildebrandt, the director of the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum, which keeps the tally of border victims. The other case came to light more than two decades ago.

    'There was his name'
    Hildebrandt said that although her organization spends months researching individual entries, even examining autopsy reports in some cases, the list is still a "work in progress."

    Slideshow: Rise and fall of the Berlin Wall

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    An archival look at the iconic barrier that became a symbol of the broader Cold War conflict.

    Launch slideshow

    "It's not always that easy to get access to this information," she said. "Former employees of the secret police still control a lot of it."

    'Forest Boy' mystery solved as man admits lies over identity

    Seiptius tried two more times, unsuccessfully, to escape East Germany until he was granted permission to leave. Today, he lives near the western German city of Mainz.

    The case was not made public until recently, when Seiptius' ex-wife stumbled across an article on the website of the German broadcaster NDR, which listed Seiptius as deceased.

    Using a scraper, nail-polish remover and a camera, 66-year-old Irmela Mensah-Schramm is tackling neo-Nazi hate in Berlin. The retired special-needs teacher has removed more than 90,000 hateful stickers and graffiti.

    "It was pure coincidence," said Patricia Seiptius. "I was looking for something online and one of the search results was this article, I looked at it and there was his name.

    "I couldn't believe it."

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Leftist tipped to be next Greek leader warns of 'Cold War' over austerity

    Until a few weeks ago very few people had heard of him, but Alexis Tsipras could soon be the next Prime Minister of Greece. His anti-austerity stance won his party second place in the recent election, and the forecasts for next month's run-off suggest they could do even better.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    A radical leftist tipped to become Greece's next prime minister says his country is involved in a "Cold War" over austerity measures with Germany and the U.K.

    In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4 News, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza party, said countries insisting on austerity measures in exchange bailout funds would not dare throw Greece out of the euro currency because that would cause a domino effect, plunging states like Italy into crisis.

    "The problem is not a Greek problem, it's a European problem," he said. "If Greece goes outside ... the eurozone, the second day, the next day, the markets will try and find who will be the next. And the next is Italy with 1.9 trillion euros debt, not like Greece, we have only 350 billion euros [debt].

    Read more stories from Britain's Channel 4 News

    Economic powerhouse Germany has been insisting on austerity policies to cut government debts as part of the price of economic help.

    But the 37-year-old Tsipras, whose party is currently leading the polls on 30 percent ahead of the June 17 election, said Germany and countries taking a similar stance would back down.

    Many residents fear that a slow economy is cutting into the number of foreign visitors. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Europe told to prep for Greek exit scenario

    "I believe we find ourselves in a situation equivalent to the one the U.S. found itself in with Russia back during the days of the Cold War," he told Channel 4 News.

    "Both sides had nuclear weapons in their hands and both sides threatened to push the button and activate. When you have a Cold War neither side will back down, so now we don't expect Mrs. Merkel or Mr. Cameron to back down either," he added, referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron. "We are quite sure that when the time comes logic will prevail and they will not activate their nuclear weapons."

    Euro crisis turns Spanish suburbs into ghost towns

    Tsipras said it would be a "win-win" situation to find a "solution without austerity" and without currency devaluation.

    A new election is scheduled for June 17, as debate continues over the country's place in the euro zone. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Greece is currently expected to introduce 11 billion euros of austerity measures by the end of June, but Tsipras said this was simply not possible because of the country's "destroyed economy."

    "Do you actually think they would be able to implement these measures?" he said. "The problem is the austerity measures which have failed."

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