President Demetris Christofias believes that a political settlement in Cyprus is possible by December, if Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership change course. President Christofias' comments came in the wake of positions expressed by Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat in Ankara, that the current UN-led negotiations could conclude by December this year. Foreign officials speak of an ''international timeframe'' expiring in December, when the European Commission is expected to assess Turkey’s accession course. ''There is no international timeframe,'' the President stressed replying to questions, adding that ''if there is something which could be considered international, that is our agreement with the UN Secretary-General that there will be no timeframes and especially no suffocating ones and that there will be no arbitration,'' in the ongoing talks, which began in September last year. Stressing that he remains committed to this agreement, President Christofias expressed ''anger and regret'' at any suggestion that EU leading personalities or UN officials might be talking about timeframes. ''We want a solution soon,'' the President said, stressing that ''if Turkey needs a solution, it must first help itself. In my opinion, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership must change course and respect the fundamental principles of international law, in addition to showing respect for the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus, of the United Republic of Cyprus, which I hope will emerge out of the unitary state.” ''If Turkey shows this respect and shifts its policy, it is possible to reach a settlement by December,'' Christofias said, warning everybody that they should remind Ankara, not Nicosia, of this coming December. Ankara, he added, must be reminded of its obligations towards the EU, Cyprus and the international community, which so far it has failed to meet.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he hoped Georgia had learned its lesson and would not make any more attempts to retake its rebel provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A day after visiting South Ossetia, where the Russian army repelled Georgia in a five-day war last August, Medvedev strongly hinted Russia would again respond militarily if Georgia tried to retake either of the territories. "I would not like to specially recount what happened last year ... and to what we were forced to give a tough and pretty effective response," he told a meeting with senior officers. "I hope this lesson will be deeply ingrained in the memory of those now trying to reshape the current order, those trying to solve their personal problems by violence." There is widespread speculation in Russia that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, facing opposition protests, may seek to divert public attention from problems at home by trying to spark a new conflict in the turbulent Caucasus. Russia recognized the two separatist regions as independent states after Georgia's attempt to retake South Ossetia. "The main lesson for us from these events is the necessity to hold fully-fledged, on-going and highly effective exercises of all types of the armed forces of the Russian Federation," Medvedev said.
"This is a historic moment in our relations with countries of the Western Balkans," said EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Jacques Barrot. The changes, if approved by all 27 EU members and the European Parliament, would apply from 1 January 2010. It would mean travellers could visit all the countries in the Schengen zone. The Schengen zone is made up of 25 European countries - the 27 EU members, minus the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus; plus three non-EU nations - Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Although Bulgaria and Romania are not yet in Schengen they do have visa-free arrangements with the EU, so they are also set to ease the travel rules for their Balkan neighbours, if they have not already done so unilaterally.The European Commission decided against making the same recommendation for Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo. Mr Barrot said Albania and Bosnia had not been included largely because they were further behind on the introduction of biometric passports. The Commission said it hoped to lift visa requirements for Albania and Bosnia by the middle of next year if they met EU standards. They have been urged to crack down on organised crime and corruption, and improve border-control procedures.
We've never had an Official U.S. Senate Pornographer before, though pornographic behavior is frequently the entertainment provided to the public by the world's oldest deliberative body. So Al Franken, the answer to Harry Reid's prayer, should fit right in. Some of the Democrats can't wait to see what mischief they can do. "With the Minnesota recount complete," Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said after the Minnesota robbery was completed, "it is now clear that Al Franken won the election." Actually, it wasn't clear at all, but clarity is never valued among thieves. The Democrats in the Senate were eager to get Al seated quickly, both for crucial Senate votes coming up and because once seated among his equals, a bum is difficult to throw out. There's honor among the members of our only native criminal class, similar to the honor among robbers, burglars and other servants of the night. The difference, and it's only a slight one, is that robbers, burglars and thieves often hold themselves to higher standards than members of Congress. The theft of Norman Coleman's Senate seat was remarkably brazen for the way it was done in broad daylight. The techniques of such thievery are peculiar to the various states. Mary Landrieu stole her seat in Louisiana, but authentic fraud shock is rare in Louisiana, and Huey Long didn't bother to roll to either right or left in his grave. Lyndon Johnson got to the Senate on the strength of a single ballot box in remote Jim Wells County, where he kept going back for more votes until he had the 87 ballots he needed to steal the election from Gov. Coke Stevenson. But Minnesota imagines itself to be more high minded than Louisiana or Texas, even if the rest of us don't. One member of the Minnesota canvassing board, a state Supreme Court justice, conceded that some ballots were probably counted twice, but he said there was not much anybody could do about it. In more than 25 precincts, officials counted more ballots than actual voters; this was put down to well-meant enthusiasm. If everyone has a duty to vote, who could scold a voter for going above and beyond the call of duty? Al Franken's vote is not likely to be the margin of victory for any of the schemes now being dreamed up by the Democrats, but the way he got to Washington, and the easy acceptance of fraud, will be remembered as typical of the times, an era when avarice reigned, and the clever swindle was a joke to be played by a clown.
As former Vice President Dick Cheney is being dragged over the coals due to his possible role in a secret CIA hit ring, his daughter Liz launches a broadside against Obama’s Russia trip. Liz Cheney, who served as deputy assistant Secretary of State under George W. Bush, lectured the American “commander-in-speech” for cuddling up to the Russians, as well as preaching a “false historical narrative” by telling “a room full of Russians less than the truth about how the Cold War ended” during last week’s visit. As if the Russians need an American leader to teach them their own history in the first place. “Mr. Obama’s method for pushing reset around the world is becoming clearer with each foreign trip,” Cheney wrote in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal. “He proclaims moral equivalence between the U.S. and our adversaries, he readily accepts a false historical narrative, and he refuses to stand up against anti-American lies.” This leads directly to the next Neoconservative fallacy, which states that it is beyond the duty or status of the (superior) United States to sit down and have a chat with our enemies, as Barack Obama (gasp!) has proposed to do. Instead, we should turn up the rhetorical thermostat in our diabolical little think tanks; we should build up our military-industrial complex; we should frighten our enemies to such a degree that they will be forced to acquire weapons of mass destruction before they too have democracy rammed down their throats courtesy of an aircraft carrier. After all, only the United States should own weapons of mass destruction. In the Neoconservative political script, anybody who challenges the inherent goodness of America’s actions is immediately labeled “anti-American,” or even worse, a full-blown terrorist. You are either with us or against us, as George W. Bush reminded the world after 9/11, simple as that. “The approach was evident in his (Obama’s) speech in Moscow and in his speech in Cairo last month,” Cheney continues. “In Cairo, he asserted there was some sort of equivalence between American support for the 1953 coup in Iran and the evil that the Iranian mullahs have done in the world since 1979.” The fact is, in 1953 the CIA embarked on its first covert operation against a foreign government, helping to bring down the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq, replacing him with an authoritarian monarch. The despot was knocked off his throne only in 1979 with the Iranian Revolution, a major event in Iranian history that was celebrated by the hostage-taking of 52 American diplomats for 444 days.
"As Christians, we dare to hope, even in an age when millions of people all over the planet are in despair, under pressure from the global economic crisis, and are overwhelmed by uncertainty," said the head of the Albanian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Anastasios, when he addressed delegates at the 15 July opening worship service of the once-every-six-years assembly of the Conference of European Churches. A gathering of European churches has opened in the French city of Lyon with an account of how a church rebuilt itself after religion was banned, and with a call for Christians to be at the forefront of resisting all forms of violence and racism. About 300 delegates from the grouping's 120 member churches - principally Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant - and 500 other participants are attending the 15-21 July assembly. It is taking place under the theme, "Called to One Hope in Christ", inspired by a passage from St Paul's letter to the Ephesians (4:4). "There is hope when we resist all forms of violence and racism, when we defend the dignity of every human person," said Archbishop Anastasios, who came from Greece to Albania in 1992 to rebuild the life of the Orthodox church there following 46 years of communist rule. "There is hope when we insist on the obligation for unselfish solidarity between people and peoples, when we fight for unfeigned respect for the creation," said the cleric from Albania, who added that Christians must be at the forefront of defending the dignity of all human beings. "Churches, monasteries and ecclesial structures all lay in ruins after 23 years of total atheist persecution. Spiritually, it was like a desert landscape: (and) disheartening," Anastasios recalled what he had found on his arrival in Albania 17 years ago. "The only thing that supported the efforts to reconstitute the church was a phrase that epitomised all our certainty: In Christ there is hope! We dare to hope." The Lyon assembly marks the 50th anniversary of the European church grouping, founded at the height of the Cold War in 1959 as a bridge between churches in Western Europe and the Communist-ruled East. The Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, urged delegates to find ways of promoting Christian unity against the background of the economic, cultural, political and inter-religious challenges in Europe.
A group of Orthodox clergy in Greece, led by three senior archbishops, have published a manifesto pledging to resist all ecumenical ties with Roman Catholics and Protestants. "The only way our communion with heretics can be restored is if they renounce their fallacy and repent," the group said in a "Confession of Faith against Ecumenism" that they circulated recently. "The Orthodox church is not merely the true church; she is the only church. She alone has remained faithful to the Gospel, the synods and the fathers, and consequently she alone represents the true catholic church of Christ," says the document. The signatories say they wish to preserve "irremovably and without alteration" the Orthodox faith that the Early Church had "demarcated and entrenched," and to shun communication "with those who innovate on matters of the faith". The signatories note that many Orthodox patriarchs and bishops have, "essentially placed themselves outside the church" by abandoning its "uniform, steady and unswerving stance," and attempting to impose a "new dogma and ecclesiology" that all denominations formed part of the church. "This pan-heresy of ecumenism adopts and legalises all heresies as 'churches', and insults the dogma of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church," says the group. "All boundaries the fathers set have been torn down; there is no longer a dividing line between heresy and church, between truth and fallacy." Supporters of the document, which emerged from an April 2009 convention of Orthodox clergymen and monks, might point to an incident in May 2009 as an example of what they condemn. Then, Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All-Greece addressed a Church of England delegation visiting Greece, and told them that the Church of Greece and the Anglican Communion constituted, "two of the main sources of Christian faith in the old continent". Ieronymos said that Orthodox leaders remained committed to "more fruitful cooperation on both theological and major social issues" with other denominations. The 4000-word "confession of faith" rejects such an approach. The Thessalonika-based Theodromia journal has posted the statement on the Internet, along with an appeal for more signatures from clergy and laypeople. The document says that the Catholic papacy has become the "womb of heresies and fallacies" by promoting "dogmatic minimalism" and causing "moral deviations such as homosexuality and paedophilia among clergymen". The "confession" adds that even greater criticisms should be directed at Protestantism, which has "inherited many heresies but also added many more" by rejecting tradition, the veneration of saints, monasticism and sacraments. A member of the Greek church's Synodical Committee for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations told Ecumenical News International on 17 June that his governing Holy Synod had not "rejected or accepted" the confession. Still, he noted that the group was right to insist the church "recognised only its own sacraments," and said the document would be debated if it was brought before the synod. "As things stand, our church is still participating in the ecumenical movement, with representatives in the World Council of Churches and Conference of European Churches. It is open to serious dialogue with all churches, and it could not do this without contacts with them," said the official, who asked not to be named. "But everyone has a right in Orthodoxy to express opinions and positions, and there is a strong element here, as in other churches, against ecumenism."