As the world enters day 12 of the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010, the United States is in the lead with 25 medals won. The record holder, however, for most Olympic medals won goes to Norway. The United States follows and the former Soviet Union comes in third. Throughout the history of the Winter Olympic games, Norway has won a total of 290 medals. These consist of 103 gold medals, 101 silver medals, and 86 bronze. The United States is in second place with a total of 237 medals. These include 84 gold, 86 silver, and 67 bronze. The former Soviet Union follows with 217 medals, consisting of 87 gold, 63 silver, and 67 bronze. Germany has earned a total of 192 medals, Austria has 1919, Finland has 152, Canada has 127, Sweden and Switzerland are tied with 121 medals, and the former East Germany has 110. Italy has 105. There are many countries that have never earned a medal in the Olympic games. These nations are as follows: Turkey, Chinese Taipei, Tajikistan, Senegal, Serbia, San Marino, Armenia, Argentina, Andorra, Algeria, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bermuda, Chile, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Greece, Ghana, Georgia, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Iceland, Ireland, Iran, India, Monaco, Montenegro, Macedonia, Mongolia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Madagascar, Lithuania, Lebanon, Philippines, Peru, Pakistan, Nepal, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and South Africa.
II. TELEGRAPH - Military chiefs held over Turkish coup plot
Three of Turkey's most senior former military leaders are being held on suspicion of plotting to provoke a conflict with Greece in an attempt to destabilise the country and pave the way for a coup. They are accused of planning to provoke the Greek air force into shooting down a fighter jet to persuade the public the government was unable to guarantee national security. The "Sledgehammer" plot is also said to have involved blowing up mosques and museums in Turkey so they could be blamed on outsiders and undermine the government. The plan, said to have been formulated in 2003, called for Turkish jets to engage in aggressive manoeuvres with Greek counterparts in the sensitive airspace above Aegean Sea. By provoking the Greeks into opening fire the plotters hoped to "turn the clock back to 1923" – the last year of the Greco-Turkish War. Domestic turmoil would be unleashed by separate bomb attacks on prominent mosques. Once riots and demonstrations broke out, the military hoped to step in to oust the newly elected AK Party, which was viewed with suspicion because of its Islamic roots. Among the plans was the seizure of the Fenerbahce football stadium in Istanbul to hold people rounded up in mass arrests. The plotters estimated that 200,000 people in the Istanbul area would pose a threat to public order after martial law was imposed. The secularist Turkish army and judicial establishment has been ensnared by the investigation into the Ergenekon coup plot. It is the latest in a series of plots and conspiracies unearthed since the investigation was launched in 2007. Other schemes included the murder of a Roman Catholic priest and a prominent Armenian journalist.
Greece-FYROM relations are at a "critical crossroad", the UN secretary general's special mediator on the FYROM name issue Matthew Nimetz said Tuesday in statements to Greek state television channel NET ahead of his visit to Athens and Skopje. Nimetz also noted Greek prime minister George Papandreou's influence, with his initiatives in the region of the Western Balkans. According to NET, Nimetz is bringing to the two capitals a package of ideas based on discussions with the two sides and earlier proposals he had made. Nimetz said that the relations between the two countries were at a critical crossroad, and the international dimension of the issue has become very important. He expressed hope that the two countries will manifest leader abilities and creativity and make efforts so that progress may be achieved in his upcoming visit. The UN mediator further said that the present Greek government has placed the name issue among the top items of its foreign policy agenda. From the very beginning it put importance and the issue, and let him know that it was treating it with extreme seriousness, Nimetz continued. He further said that the Greek prime minister has personal influence beyond the name issue, and in the wider region of the western Balkans as well, as a member of the European Union, with his 2014 Agenda and his initiatives in bilateral meetings.
IV. GREEKREPORTER - White House to celebrate Greek Independence Day on March 9th
The White House will celebrate Greek Independence Day on March 9th this year. The reason for celebrating two weeks earlier instead of the actual day on March 25th is because president Barrack Obama has a very heavy schedule and will be out of the country on the 25th. As officials reported to a Greek-American member of the congress, the President wouldn’t want to miss the event and disappoint the Greek-American supporters that are already disappointed by the fact that Obama cannot find available dates for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Washington. As an American official reported, vice president Joe Biden and probably the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will be present for the Greek Independence day celebration. Archbishop Demetrius, the Ambassadors of Greece and Cyprus and members of congress, will be present. The big question is how many guests will be invited from the Greek-American Community. Last year there was an issue with not providing enough invitations to many Greek organizations, some of which expressed written complaints to the White House.
Responding to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s assurances that Russia should not fear NATO’s advance, Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin wants more than words. In a speech that outlined NATO's mission for the 21st Century, Hillary Clinton emphasized that the 28-member military organization presents no threat to Russia. “While Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them,” the US Secretary of State told an audience assembled at a Washington hotel ballroom on Monday. “We want a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and draws NATO and Russia closer together.” Clinton then said that the key to NATO-Russian relations is a high level of transparency in order to dispel Moscow’s fears that the alliance will one day turn on Russia. Dmitry Rogozin, the tough-talking Russian ambassador to NATO, wasn’t buying a word of it. “In my view, Mrs. Clinton's speech failed to answer the questions that Moscow has repeatedly raised with its US and NATO partners,” he told Interfax on Tuesday. Rogozin then cited a long list of complaints aimed at NATO and its “spontaneous expansion eastwards.” “We cannot be happy with these rules,” he said. “A unilateral world, NATO-centrism, the alliance's spontaneous expansion eastwards and refusal to recognize the principle of integrity and security.” The failure “to take into account Russia's and its partners' interests… is a burp of the Cold War,” the ambassador said. And Russia is not sitting by idly as NATO continues to encroach eastward. At a February 5 session of the Russian Security Council, President Dmitry Medvedev said he had approved Russia's updated military doctrine, which ranked NATO expansion as a major threat. Russia’s new military doctrine mentions, amongst other threats, “the desire to invest the military potential of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with global functions, carried out in violation of international law, and advance the NATO member states’ military infrastructure closer to Russia’s border, particularly by expanding the bloc.
V. PETITION - OPEN APPEAL FOR THE REINSTATEMENT OF HIS GRACE, BISHOP ARTEMIJE OF RAS AND PRIZREN AND KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
We, the undersigned, address ourselves to His Holiness, Patriarch IRINEJ, and to the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. We respectfully but insistently declare our dismay over the unjustified suspension of His Grace, Bishop ARTEMIJE, from his governance of the Diocese of Ras and Prizren and Kosovo and Metohija and call for immediate restoration of his full authority. There can be little doubt as to why this action has been taken now. Indications have been growing for some time that the western powers, notably Washington, having been frustrated in their desire to “finish the job” in the Balkans, notably in Kosovo and Metohija, have decided to remove the person who, more anyone else, has been the insurmountable obstacle to that goal. Nothing in that is surprising in light of western policies during the past two decades. But far worse even than the current attack itself is the knowledge that the outrages against Vladika Artemije have been perpetrated by his own: by persons acting in the name of the Holy Synod and of the Orthodox Church of Serbia. Today, no one remembers the persecutors of Saint John Chrysostom, who three times sent him into cruel exile, from the last of which he did not return alive. Our appeal is imperative less for Vladika Artemije, whose legacy already is secured, than for the sacred dignity of the Holy Synod itself, of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and of the Serbian people. We declare our full support for Vladika Artemije and urgently appeal to His Holiness, Patriarch Irinej, and to all members of the Holy Synod, that they take immediate action to stop the inhumane process against Vladika Artemije and fully reinstate him.
VII. ECUMENICALPATRIARCHATE - Patriarchal and Synodal Encyclical on the Sunday of Orthodoxy
+BARTHOLOMEW By God’s Grace Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the Fullness of the Church, Grace and Peace From our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our most holy Orthodox Church today commemorates its own feast day, and – from this historical and martyric See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the Mother Church of Constantinople directs its blessing, love and concern to all of its faithful and dedicated spiritual children throughout the world, inviting them to concelebrate in prayer. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Those who endeavored over the ages to suppress the Church through various visible and invisible persecutions; those who sought to falsify the Church with their heretical teachings; those who wanted to silence the Church, depriving it of its voice and witness; they all proved unsuccessful. The clouds of Martyrs, the tears of the Ascetics, and the prayers of the Saints protect the Church spiritually, while the Comforter and Spirit of Truth leads it to the fullness of truth. With a sense of duty and responsibility, despite its hurdles and problems, as the First-Throne Church of Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate cares about protecting and establishing the unity of the Orthodox Church, in order that with one voice and in one heart we may confess the Orthodox faith of our Fathers in every age and even in our times. For, Orthodoxy is not a museum treasure that must be preserved; it is a breath of life that must be transmitted and invigorate all people. Orthodoxy is always contemporary, so long as we promote it with humility and interpret it in light of the existential quests and needs of humanity in each historical period and cultural circumstance. To this purpose, Orthodoxy must be in constant dialogue with the world. The Orthodox Church does not fear dialogue because truth is not afraid of dialogue. On the contrary, if Orthodoxy is enclosed within itself and not in dialogue with those outside, it will both fail in its mission and no longer be the “catholic” and “ecumenical” Church. Instead, it will become an introverted and self-contained group, a “ghetto” on the margins of history. This is why the great Fathers of the Church never feared dialogue with the spiritual culture of their age – indeed even with the pagan idolaters and philosophers of their world – thereby influencing and transforming the civilization of their time and offering us a truly ecumenical Church. Today, Orthodoxy is called to continue this dialogue with the outside world in order to provide a witness and the life-giving breath of its faith. However, this dialogue cannot reach the outside world unless it first passes through all those that bear the Christian name. Thus, we must first converse as Christians among ourselves in order to resolve our differences, in order that our witness to the outside world may be credible. Our endeavors for the union of all Christians is the will and command of our Lord, who before His Passion prayed to His Father “that all [namely, His disciples] may be one, so that the world may believe that You sent me.” (John 17.21) It is not possible for the Lord to agonize over the unity of His disciples and for us to remain indifferent about the unity of all Christians. This would constitute criminal betrayal and transgression of His divine commandment. It is precisely for these reasons that, with the mutual agreement and participation of all local Orthodox Churches, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has for many decades conducted official Panorthodox theological dialogues with the larger Christian Churches and Confessions. The aim of these dialogues is, in a spirit of love, to discuss whatever divides Christians both in terms of faith as well as in terms of the organization and life of the Church. These dialogues, together with every effort for peaceful and fraternal relations of the Orthodox Church with other Christians, are unfortunately challenged today in an unacceptably fanatical way – at least by the standards of a genuinely Orthodox ethos – by certain circles that exclusively claim for themselves the title of zealot and defender of Orthodoxy. As if all the Patriarchs and Sacred Synods of the Orthodox Churches throughout the world, who unanimously decided on and continue to support these dialogues, were not Orthodox. Yet, these opponents of every effort for the restoration of unity among Christians raise themselves above Episcopal Synods of the Church to the dangerous point of creating schisms within the Church. In their polemical argumentation, these critics of the restoration of unity among Christians do not even hesitate to distort reality in order to deceive and arouse the faithful. Thus, they are silent about the fact that theological dialogues are conducted by unanimous decision of all Orthodox Churches, instead attacking the Ecumenical Patriarchate alone. They disseminate false rumors that union between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches is imminent, while they know well that the differences discussed in these theological dialogues remain numerous and require lengthy debate; moreover, union is not decided by theological commissions but by Church Synods. They assert that the Pope will supposedly subjugate the Orthodox, because they latter submit to dialogue with the Roman Catholics! They condemn those who conduct these dialogues as allegedly “heretics” and “traitors” of Orthodoxy, purely and simply because they converse with non-Orthodox, with whom they share the treasure and truth of our Orthodox faith. They speak condescendingly of every effort for reconciliation among divided Christians and restoration of their unity as purportedly being “the pan-heresy of ecumenism” without providing the slightest evidence that, in its contacts with non-Orthodox, the Orthodox Church has abandoned or denied the doctrines of the Ecumenical Councils and of the Church Fathers. Beloved children in the Lord, Orthodoxy has no need of either fanaticism or bigotry to protect itself. Whoever believes that Orthodoxy has the truth does not fear dialogue, because truth has never been endangered by dialogue. By contrast, when in our day all people strive to resolve their differences through dialogue, Orthodoxy cannot proceed with intolerance and extremism. You should have utmost confidence in your Mother Church. For the Mother Church has over the ages preserved and transmitted Orthodoxy even to other nations. And today, the Mother Church is struggling amid difficult circumstances to maintain Orthodoxy vibrant and venerable throughout the world. From the Ecumenical Patriarchate, this sacred Center of Orthodoxy, we embrace all of you lovingly and bless you paternally, praying that you may journey in health through the holy period of contrition and asceticism known as Holy and Great Lent in order that you may become worthy of celebrating the pure Passion and glorious Resurrection of our Savior Lord with all faithful Orthodox Christians throughout the world. Sunday of Orthodoxy 2010 + Bartholomew of Constantinople Fervent supplicant to God for all