I. NYTIMES - UN Chief Offers Support for Cyprus Peace Talks
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Cyprus' rival leaders Monday for their efforts to reunify the ethnically divided island, expressing confidence that a decades-old deadlock can be broken. On a trip meant to revitalize the process before Turkish Cypriot elections and dispel public gloom, Ban said a deal was within reach. ''I wanted to be here now because I recognize how important it is to continue to build momentum on what the leaders have achieved now,'' he said at a news conference with the two leaders that was held near crumbling buildings in Nicosia's U.N.-controlled buffer zone. Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have achieved only marginal progress in 17 months of negotiations. The secretary general praised the two leaders for making progress this month on a proposal to share power in a federal system. He spoke in the U.N. controlled buffer zone that cuts the island -- and the city of Nicosia -- in two. ''No one is under any illusion that any of this will be easy,'' said Ban. ''But the time is ripe to push ahead. I am convinced that these two leaders can achieve a mutually beneficial solution.'' Cyprus was divided into a Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974, when Turkey invaded after a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. The Greek Cypriot government is internationally recognized. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey, which keeps 35,000 troops there. Christofias and Talat remain far apart on most major issues -- including how to treat property seized during the war and Turkey's right to intervene militarily. The two leaders agreed to continue negotiating through February and March contrary to speculation there would be a break for campaigning. ''I'm ready to continue with (Talat) negotiating, despite the elections,'' said Christofias. ''This is our common desire, this is our common decision.''
U.S. should make the final step on lifting visa regime for Greek citizens, deputy foreign minister Dimitris Drucas told Greek Ta Nea newspaper. Drucas assured Greece has made no obstacles on the issue. Dimitris Drucas headed for the U.S. on Monday. On Tuesday, he will meet in Washington the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the deputy U.S. Secretary of State James Steinberg. On February 3 Drucas’s agenda envisages meetings in the UN Head Office in NewYork. He will also deliver a speech in the Columbia University. On February 4 he will meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the name dispute with Macedonia and the Cyprus issue.
III. UPI - U.S.-Russian arms control talks resume
Talks between U.S. and Russian diplomats over a new arms control treaty resumed Monday in Switzerland. The meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva is intended to help broker a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expired in late 2009. Previous negotiations in Geneva in December ended without results. It's the first time in four decades that the United States and Russia do not have an arms treaty in operation. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev indicated last week that the new treaty was nearly agreed upon and could be finalized within a few weeks. U.S. national security adviser Gen. James Jones and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Russian defense officials led by Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, last week in Moscow for two days of closed-door talks. The negotiations come half a year after Obama and Medvedev signed an agreement pledging a reduction of nuclear warheads from 2,200 to a range of between 1,500 and 1,675, and of carrier missiles from 1,600 to a range of between 500 and 1,100. The agreement at the time was hailed as a major step forward for U.S.-Russian relations, which had suffered over the past years with differences ranging from human rights, the independence of the former Serbian province of Kosovo, NATO's eastward expansion, a U.S.-planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe and the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. Obama has promised to shake up U.S. foreign policy by trying to improve ties with the Kremlin in a bid to get increased support from Russia in Afghanistan and in the conflict over Iran's controversial nuclear program.
IV. RT - Russia opens its first ice hotel
The first ice hotel in Russia will be opened at a ski resort in Arkhangelsk region on St Valentine’s Day, just ahead of Pancake Week, widely celebrated throughout the country. Situated about 850 kilometers to the north of Moscow, the heart-shaped hotel is going to be built of crystal-clear ice taken from taiga lakes and the white snow of Russia’s north. So, if you feel like drinking a shot of vodka from a shot glass made of ice, or sleep on an ice bed in a sleeping bag, your destination could be not only Scandinavia or Canada, but Russia as well. The Russian Snow project boasts to have an ice bar, ice cinema, ice gym (with all the equipment made of ice, of course) and even a wedding palace! Inside the hotel there will be ice sculptures dedicated to the famous Russian scientist and university founder Mikhail Lomonosov, marking his 300th anniversary in 2011. The temperature inside the ice building will never rise above 0º Celsius. The hotel will be open until the end of March and, with a bit of luck, could last even longer.
The temporary administration of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipality has called on a boycott of the Kosovo Albanian government’s institutions. In a news conference held today, the administration’s representatives also condemned the plan drafted by Priština and the International Civil Office (ICO) Chief Pieter Feith for the integration of northern Kosovo into the Kosovo system outside the rules set by UN Resolution 1244, in an effort to close all of Serbia’s institutions in the north. Local officials of the self-administration and education system were called on not to accept wages from Priština and to boycott all the institutions of the Kosovo government. Citizens were warned not to take Kosovo personal documents, because they would in this way be recognizing the unilateral independence proclamation. According to the statement, any possible calling of elections organized by the unrecognized Kosovo institutions would go against the Constitution and Resolution 1244. The temporary northern municipal administration also called on all politicians and Serb and non-Albanian citizens to boycott the Kosovo government. The Serbian institutions were urged to fight a more determined fight and fully support the preservation and strengthening of the Serbian institutions, as well as to form a “clear, unequivocal stance towards those that violate the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.”
VI. BALKANINSIGHT - Serbian Patriarch Irinej: The New Guardian
The name pulled from between the pages of the gospel at the gathering of the bishops was that of Irinej, the Bishop of Nis who now ascends to the throne of Saint Sava. Irinej, 80, born in a small village near Cacak in central Serbia spent more than 30 years as bishop of Serbia’s second city. The word from the people of Nis is that he is a man without any “disadvantages”. Modest, decent, “a man who knows to listen and understand”, Irinej was chosen over two other bishops – influential metropolitan Amfilohije and respected bishop Irnej from western Serbia. According to some sources, the new patriarch did not expect the honour and had counselled “brothers do not do that”. But, the ‘spirit of the saints’ elected him and the Serbian Orthodox Church has a leader in full control, after a long time spent in limbo when Patriarch Pavle spent almost three years in hospital before his death in November last year. There was much speculation in the media about the identity of the new Patriarch, but almost nobody predicted Irinej. Much like the Serbian Government, headed by Mirko Cvetkovic, the Serbian church now also has a quiet man at the helm. “The main goal of our church in the coming years is to help our people in Kosovo and to help our state to save Kosovo” said Irinej on the day he came to power. Although the rhetoric mirrors prevailing attitudes in the church, analysts say that new man is a liberal and that he will start talks with the church’s catholic brothers. He should also, they say, be able to improve relationships with the Macedonian Orthodox Church, still unrecognised by the Orthodox Churches. Irinej is recognised as a person able to start an ecumenical dialogue and perhaps to bring Pope Benedict XVI to Serbia in 2013 when Christians throughout the world will celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan. Major celebrations will take place in Nis, the birthplace of the author of the edict, Roman Emperor, Constantine. Analysts say that new patriarch will bring a fresh outlook to the Serbian Orthodox Church, but that public should not expect a revolution because The Holy Synod of the church is the real decision maker.
VII. RIANOVOSTI - Patriarch Kirill's first year: priests in barracks, religion in schools, better ties with Catholics
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has led important changes in the country, which included the introduction of chaplains in military units and the launch of Orthodox culture courses teaching in schools a year since he was enthroned as head of the world's largest Orthodox Church. Kirill held a Divine Liturgy in downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral on Monday, and received congratulations afterwards. Over 100 bishops, including from other countries, came to congratulate the patriarch during festivities also attended by President Dmitry Medvedev and his spouse, as well as by 3,000 believers. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad was elected as the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in late January 2009 by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church that numbers more than 135 million members worldwide, succeeding Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December 2008 at the age of 79. Kirill was enthroned February 1 last year, at a ceremony also held in the Christ the Savior Cathedral. Kirill, widely seen as a reformist, has won prominence by becoming the first top Orthodox priest to anchor a television show. After becoming patriarch he launched a new practice for the Orthodox leader: meeting large youth audiences at stadiums, answering their questions and delivering sermons. Kirill, who has strong support from the Kremlin, has said he sees reviving national spirit and morals damaged in the years of Communism and post-Soviet turmoils as his task. He has advocated reviving the practice of army chaplains abandoned after Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 and teaching religion in school, when schoolchildren and their parents can choose between being taught the basics of four traditional Russian faiths (Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism or Buddhism) or the basics of secular ethics - an experiment that is to embrace the whole of Russia from 2012. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin congratulated Patriarch Kirill on the anniversary of enthronization. Kirill has contributed to the improvement of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See. As head of the Russian Orthodox Church's external relations for more than a decade, he had led dialogue with the Vatican and other churches. The enthronement of Patriarch Kirill, who was seen as a liberal in the largely traditionalist church, was welcomed by the Roman Catholic Church. In December 2009, Moscow and the Vatican exchanged notes formalizing the establishment of full diplomatic relations. Since 1990, the two sides maintained diplomatic representation below the level of ambassador. Now, Russia has a full-fledged embassy in Vatican. As a result of the Great Schism, Christianity split in 1054 AD into the Eastern branch (the Orthodox Church) and the Western branch (the Roman Catholic Church). They have a number of theological and political differences.