I. CYNEWSLIVE - More desecration of religious monuments in occupied Cyprus
The Museum of Kykkos Monastery has presented new evidence of destruction, desecration and plundering of religious monuments in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus. Dr. Charalambos Hodjakoglou, head of the Museum's programme to record evidence concerning churches and other religious monuments in the Turkish occupied areas, referred to specific incidents of desecration, as well as the violation of the freedom of religion by the Turkish occupation regime. He noted that the Roman Catholic gothic church of Saint Francis has been turned into a pub and pizza parlour, and that the church of the Johannine knights has been transformed into a night club. Furthermore, the church of Panayia Trapeza in the village of Acheritou has been desecrated, with illegal excavations of probable medieval tombs. In the case of Saint Efimianos in the village of Lysi, plunderers partially demolished a wall and excavated the floor, having earlier removed the church's murals. Hodjakoglou also referred to a ''dramatic case, in which we also bear responsibility,'' namely the church of Panayia of Trachonas in the Turkish occupied part of Nicosia, which has been turned into a dance school. He pointed out that recently road works began in the area, very close to the church, causing the building to become unstable. A breast wall had to be built to prevent the church from collapsing.
II. KATHIMERINI - Greece appeals to EU over Turkey
Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas yesterday raised the issue of ongoing Turkish provocations in the Aegean with the European Union’s General Affairs and External Relations Council following a series of violations of Greek airspace and territorial waters by Turkish fighter jets and vessels this week. Droutsas highlighted the “extremely dangerous” tactic of Turkish F16s harassing Greek coast guard helicopters participating in anti-immigration patrols in cooperation with Frontex, the EU’s border monitoring agency. Droutsas appealed to the EU’s council just a few days after lodging an official complaint with diplomats in Ankara last Friday when Turkish F16s “locked onto” a Greek coast guard helicopter and threatened to shoot it down as it flew over Farmakonisi. Droutsas, who is due to visit Turkish government officials in Ankara later this month ahead of a scheduled trip to Greece by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stressed yesterday that he was hopeful for an improvement in Greek-Turkish relations. “These activities bother us and they are certainly not being ignored,” Droutsas told a business and economic conference in Athens organized by the International Herald Tribune. But he indicated that diplomacy would prevail over aggression. “Foreign policy is not trench warfare,” he remarked. In a related development defense officials expressed concern after a Turkish corvette, which had been participating in an international operation in the Aegean, veered close to Greek territorial waters off the island of Santorini. It is the seventh such incident in the region this year.
All over Serbia and in the Serbian diaspora, Day of Remembrance of Victims of the NATO aggression against Serbia is being marked. Some 3,500 persons were killed, more than 12,500 were wounded and thousands of infrastructural facilities, hospitals, schools, buildings and other civilian targets were levelled to the ground or damaged in the NATO bombing, which began on 24 March 1999. On that occasion, commemorative gathereings have been held, homage was paid to victims and wreaths were laid on monuments. Serbian Patriarch Irinej held a memorial service to all the victims of the NATO aggression in St Mark’s Church in Belgrade. NATO attributed the 78-day air strikes on the then FR Yugoslavia to alleged humanitarian reasons and the position of Kosovo Albanians. The aggression ended with the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement and the withdrawal of Yugoslav Army and Serbian Interior Ministry forces from Kosmet, after which UN peace forces arrived in the southern Serbian province. Ever since the arrival of the international forces, more than 200,000 Kosmet Serbs and other non-Albanians have been expelled from Kosmet.
The Serbian government's precondition that Kosovo take part in international gatherings only under the designation of the UN civilian authority in Kosovo, UNMIK, got a major boost recently because of disunity within the EU on Kosovo. A regional summit of Balkan countries was held on March 20 in the Brdo castle in central Slovenia. But Serbia refused to attend because it objected to the presence of Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Serbian President Boris Tadic remained firm in his position to visiting Slovenian officials in Belgrade last week -- namely that he would go to Brdo only if Kosovo, which was also invited, is not identified as a state. The Kosovo recognition question isn't going away any time soon. Spain, which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency and has not recognized Kosovo, promised Serbia that there would be no problem for Belgrade to attend an upcoming regional gathering that the Spanish Presidency is organizing in Sarajevo. But Spain's ambassador to Serbia said that Kosovo can come only if it is represented as UNMIK. The differences between the Slovenian and Spanish positions reflect divisions within the EU between the 22 member countries that recognize Kosovo and the five that do not -- largely because of concerns that such recognition could encourage ethnic minorities within their own countries. Serbia is now waiting for the International Court of Justice in The Hague to act later this year on Belgrade's request for a ruling on Kosovo's independence.
Prague is to host the meeting of Russian and American officials at which a new strategic arms reduction treaty will be signed, says the Czech Foreign Ministry. The Czech side says the US Administration has asked them to prepare everything for a solemn ceremony. Russian officials have so far not commented on the statement, reports Interfax. What is lacking in Wednesday’s announcement is the exact date. However, Yuri Baluyevsky, deputy chief of the Russian Security Council hinted that it might happen before the middle of April. “Just several weeks ago, an overview of a recent development of the US missile defense systems came out. This document clearly states that our partners in the US in principle do not accept any limitations to the anti-ballistic missile defense,” he told RT. Today, he went on to cite his colleagues, stating “a date has been named when a new START treaty will be signed: by April 10.” ”I believe that before the middle of April we will get to the point of signing the treaty,” he added. Russian and US diplomats and military experts have been working on the new treaty since early 2009. Initially, the plan was to have the document ready by the end of last year, before the expiration of the START treaty, which the new one is to replace. However the work proved to be more difficult than expected, considering all the details. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he hoped the work on the arms treaty would be finished “in a short time.” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was visiting Russia at that time, backed up this statement. The replacement treaty is expected to put lower limits on the number of nuclear weapons and missiles for the US and Russia. The numbers will be between 500 and 1100 nuclear warheads and 1500 and 1675 delivery vehicles.
Plastic surgeons using explosive-laden breast implants in homicide bombers could be a new terror tactic that current airport scanning methods may miss. Female homicide bombers are being fitted with exploding breast implants which are almost impossible to detect, British spies have reportedly discovered. The shocking new Al Qaeda tactic involves radical doctors inserting the explosives in women's breasts during plastic surgery — making them "virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines." It is believed the doctors have been trained at some of Britain's leading teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the surgical procedures. MI5 has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into the buttocks of some male bombers. "Women suicide bombers recruited by Al Qaeda are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery," Terrorist expert Joseph Farah claims. Top surgeons have confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.
VII. SKYNEWS - Somali Pirate Shot Dead By Security Guards
Private guards have killed a Somali pirate involved in an attempted hijack for the first time, the EU Naval Force has revealed. The guards fired on three pirate ships off the coast of East Africa after they tried to hijack the merchant vessel they were protecting. The Panamanian-flagged cargo ship Almezaan was sailing towards Mogadishu when it came under attack by a group of seven pirates. When the guards on board the Almezaan returned fire, the pirates fled the scene but were pursued by the Spanish Navy vessel Navarra. Its crew boarded the bandits' boats and took six surviving pirates into custody before finding the body of another on board. A spokesperson for the EU Naval Force said: "The mother ship has now been destroyed and the remaining six suspects have been taken onboard the Navarra." Earlier this week, the Navarra assisted the crew of an Iranian vessel after it was attacked and robbed by pirates. Private security guards are commonly placed on merchant ships which sail through pirate-infested waters around the Gulf of Aden.