Some terrorism suspects held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be moved to an Illinois prison that the federal government will buy to hold them, the Obama administration announced Tuesday. An executive order issued by President Obama called for Attorney General Eric Holder to purchase the nearly vacant prison and for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to "prepare the [prison] for secure housing of detainees currently held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base who have been or will be designated for relocation, and shall relocate such detainees to the [prison], consistent with laws related to Guantanamo detainees." Republicans criticized the plan for bringing terrorism suspects into the country despite questions over the legality of terms of their continued detention. "Without a vote, a public hearing or a detailed plan, the governor and the administration are moving quickly to force the citizens of Illinois to accept this risk," Kirk said. In a statement by Military Families United, the former commander of the USS Cole, which was attacked by al Qaeda in Yemen in 2000, called closing Guantanamo a mistake. "Congress and the American people must now stand up and prevent our communities, our justice system and our hard-earned money from being used by the Administration to prop up, perhaps, the most dangerous campaign promise ever uttered," the statement quoted Kirk Lippold as saying.
Washington suggests the name "The Republic of Northern Macedonia" as a solution to the name dispute between Skopje and Athens and the use of the term "Macedonian" to define the identity and language, Elefterotipia daily reports on Monday in an article titled "Americans prepare a trap for FYROM's name". It's time to put an end to the name row and to realise the importance of its possible settlement and of Macedonia's accession to Euro-Atlantic structures, the newspaper says citing American diplomats. Americans exert pressure over a solution to the issue through UN envoy Matthew Nimetz. The American plan envisages the new name "The Republic of Northern Macedonia" to be approved by the UN Security Council and to recommend the name to be used by UN members in bilateral relations with Macedonia. A "silent solution" is envisaged for the identity and language - their definition as Macedonian to be entered in the UN register without previous approval from Greece. In fact, Athens is not able to stop it, reports Elefterotipia. Learning from past mistakes, the new US administration plans to refute Greece's arguments before NATO and EU summits in 2010, says the newspaper stressing that Washington pressed Greece during the Bucharest NATO summit, but it did not result in compromise and Athens vetoed Macedonia's accession to the Alliance.
Cyprus has asked Interpol for help in tracing the missing corpse of former president Tassos Papadopoulos amid rumours that bodysnatchers have put out a ransom demand for its return. With Greek and Turkish Cypriots still stunned by the theft and little headway made by police in the six days since the corpse's disappearance, authorities said today they had called in Interpol. Cyprus's intelligence services are also investigating the case amid concerns that the bizarre affair is affecting sensitive talks to reunite the war-partitioned island. Papadopoulos, who was president from 2003-2008, died at 74 from lung cancer a year ago to the day before his remains were taken from a cemetery near the divided capital Nicosia. Under cover of darkness, the raiders shifted a heavy marble slab encasing the tomb and dug through several feet of earth before snatching the corpse from the coffin. Police said they had used lime to cover their tracks in what was soon revealed to be a highly organised crime.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić met in Washington on Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. Jeremić and Clinton held a 30-minute meeting at the State Department, which focused on the situation in the region and the relations between the two countries, reports said. "The relations between Serbia and the United States of America are definitely on the rise and we expect the year 2010 to be an even better year for the relations between Belgrade and Washington." "Serbia is the key factor of stability in the Western Balkan region, we agreed on that in today's meeting, while Belgrade's stand is an element of crucial importance in achieving the strategic process of the region's integration and joining of all Western Balkan states the European family of nations," the Voice of America quoted Jeremić as saying. He also reminded that in 2009, Belgrade and Washington "found ways to isolate and set aside their differences", and said he expected the same to happen next year.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday Russia and NATO should cooperate more closely due to a rise in common threats, news agencies reported. "Our relations are entering a new level," Medvedev said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Moscow. "We have many reasons for interaction, many subjects for discussion," including joint actions to counter terrorism, crime and other common threats, Medvedev said. "Much depends on relations between Russia and NATO," he said. Medvedev expressed the hope that Rasmussen's visit would help make Russia-NATO ties "stronger and more productive." Rasmussen told Medvedev that Russia's cooperation on NATO's operation in Afghanistan was beneficial to both sides. "I do believe that it's essential for Russia that we succeed in Afghanistan," the Danish NATO chief said during the Kremlin meeting. Earlier in the day, Rasmussen also held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Admitting differences between the military alliance and Russia, Rasmussen said they should not overshadow common interests in many fields. Lavrov said Russia "was interested in the normalization of relations" with its former Cold War foe. Russia-NATO relations, strained in the wake of the brief war between Russia and Georgia in August last year, have improved in recent months. Rasmussen was expected to raise the issue of Afghanistan and Russia's potential transportation assistance to NATO's mission there on his first visit to Moscow since taking office in August. Russia has allowed the transit of non-lethal supplies for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan through its territory under an April 2008 deal signed in Bucharest.
The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has recognized the independence of the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia. South Ossetia and Nauru, the world's smallest island state, on Wednesday established diplomatic relations. The joint statement was signed by Nauru Foreign Minister Kieren Keke and South Ossetian Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Medoyev, who received special powers from South Ossetia's president, Eduard Kokoity. Nauru is the fourth country to recognize South Ossetia's independence, joining Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The South Ossetian leader said that the republic's recognition by Nauru was an important step towards South Ossetia becoming a full-fledged member of the international community. "This politically weighty step by the Nauru leadership again confirms the unconditional right of the South Ossetian people to freedom, equality and to live in safety," Kokoity said. On Tuesday, Nauru recognized the independence of Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic. Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 after a brief war with Georgia, which attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to regain control of its former republic.
The Moscow Patriarchate is grateful to Pope Benedict XVI for understanding problems between the two Churches and not pressing on with visiting Russia and meeting with the Patriarch. "Pope Benedict XVI perfectly understands the existing difficulties and therefore is not pressing on his meeting with the Patriarch, not to mention visiting Russia, as was done under his predecessor. We are grateful to him for this," the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk said in an interview published in Der Spiegel, whose Russian translation the Department for External Church Relations has published on its website. The Russian Orthodox Church does not rule out the possibility of a meeting between the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and the Pope, but believes that it should be preceded by the resolution of the problems between them rather than be turned into "just a protocol meeting and handshakes between TV cameras." "We want a breakthrough in our relations. When the situation in western Ukraine improves radically, when we, the Orthodox and the Catholics, agree once and for all that we are not adversaries gaining believers over from each other, then a meeting between the Pope and the Moscow Patriarch will be possible," he said. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Greek Catholics in western Ukraine "seized hundreds of Orthodox churches, and thousands of Orthodox believers were actually thrown out into the street," Archbishop Hilarion said.