Global Voices Online

De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis marks Lev Yashin's birthday: “…Lev Ivanovich Yashin, goalkeeper of the Soviet football squad, the best football goalkeeper of the XX century, the only goalkeeper to become the European Footballer of the Year, Olympic champion, 1960 European champion, 5 times USSR championship winner, 3 times USSR Cup winner, player of the FIFA Best of the World XI team, who was awarded Order of Lenin, Hero of Socialist Labor medal, Olympic order, FIFA Golden Medal for Merits, and so on, so on, so on.”

Recent Links also in Eastern & Central Europe

Belgraded reports that, beginning Dec. 19, “there will be no more visa requirement for Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian citizens if they want to travel to the Schengen territory” - debunks “some visa-free travel myths.” Jana Orsolic thinks “it's too good to be truth” and shares some of her feelings: “…there's no room for silly excuses for something being done badly because of poor us being isolated.”

A few last month's updates at IZO: artist and writer Vagrich Bakhchanyan dies in NYC; Ukrainian artist Aleksandr Gnilitsky dies in Kyiv; a Ukrainian Euro-2012 icon.

Profy cites a report by the Russian division of Microsoft, which claims that the company has lost $1 billion to Russian pirates, but has earned the same amount from legal sales.