The announcement by the US ambassador in Nicosia this week regarding the launch of oil and gas exploration off the coast of Cyprus by an American firm has sparked an angry response from Turkish officials and, in turn, stern words from authorities in Nicosia. Responding to comments by Ambassador to Cyprus Frank Urbancic on Tuesday, Turkish officials were quoted in Turkey’s daily Hurriyet yesterday as saying, “Our fleet is there – we cannot allow this to happen even if it is a US company.” The comments came after Urbancic revealed that an American company was preparing to prospect for oil off the divided island. “US investments in Cyprus amount to more than $379 million. This figure will soon increase substantially as an American energy firm begins exploring for oil and gas off Cyprus’s southwest coast.” Officials in Nicosia yesterday sought to put the Turks in their place. “The mineral wealth belongs to the Republic of Cyprus and no one else. If the Cyprus problem was solved tomorrow, the Turkish Cypriots would also be in a position to benefit.”
According to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg there are lots of creative solutions to the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece. "We believe this is very important. It gives an opportunity to Skopje and the leadership to take a deserved place in the European integration and become part of NATO. We hope there will be a real, intensified focus - both in Athens and in Skopje - to come to a creative solution to the problem to ensure that integration process continues." In his words US will work hard with both countries so to see what their national interest is because both Greece and Macedonia want this problem to be solved.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says Moscow will continue to coordinate with Serbia’s foreign policy approach and search for a lasting solution for Kosovo. “We plan to continue coordinating our foreign policy approaches, including the search for a just solution for the Kosovo question, based on international law,” Medvedev told a reception for letters of accreditation for 12 new ambassadors to Russia. “Active political dialogue is underpinned by joint implementation of large-scale projects in the fuel and gas sector, which increase the energy security of the Balkans and Europe as a whole.”
Construction has been started on a 1,740 kilometre pipeline from Iran through Turkey and on to consumers in Europe to carry Iranian gas. Turkey, which has announced plans to produce an annual 20.4 billion cubic metres of gas in Iran's South Pars gas field and export it over its territory, already has one gas pipeline through which it imports 28 million cubic metres of gas daily. The Pars Pipeline will go from Turkey to Greece, through Italy and on to other European countries. Another route could go through Iraq and Syria and then go through the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy. Several natural gas pipeline projects are being planned to meet rising European consumption, among them the Nabucco pipeline project, conceived to decrease Europe's dependence on Russian gas, which makes up a quarter of its consumption.
A coalition of advocacy groups reported on Friday that cluster bombs were still being manufactured in 17 nations, including countries such as the United States, Russia, and Israel. The Cluster Munitions Coalition said that 96 countries had agreed to ban such weapons since last year because they frequently kill and maim civilians. But some of the biggest manufacturers, like the US, Russia and China, have refused to stop.
Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Brazil, Poland, Singapore, North Korea, Pakistan, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea and Turkey were also listed as producers in the report published Friday.
Poland posted the European Union’s second-fastest economic growth for the first quarter so far as investments in buildings and machinery and household spending kept the nation from slipping into eastern Europe’s recession. Eastern Europe as a whole has suffered as western trading partners curb demand for their products and investment plans were canceled or postponed as credit sources dried up. All other eastern nations that reported first-quarter results have shown contractions. The Baltics region of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are faring the worst in the 27-nation EU, with Latvia’s economy sinking 18 percent in the first three months. Cyprus, a Mediterranean island that joined the EU with Poland, post growth of 1.4 percent in the first quarter, making it the fastest growing in the EU so far.
The Moscow Patriarchate's secretary for ecumenical relations is affirming that relations between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Russia are progressing, and that it is an important step for evangelizing the world. The priest affirmed a shared responsibility of Orthodox and Catholics to "renew the Christian roots of Europe" and to preach the message of Christ to the world. He explained the challenges of the Orthodox Church in the task of evangelization, faced to Russia's history of enforced atheism. Nonetheless, Father Vyzhanov said, "the Russian people did not lose their faith," although the communist regime tried to take it away. He added that in the communist era, "the faith was hidden, not dead, and after the changes in our country many people converted to the faith."