I. BOSTONGLOBE - Supreme Court faults ruling on desert cross
The Supreme Court yesterday said a lower federal court was wrong to order the removal of a cross on government land in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and said separation of church and state “does not require eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm.’’ The case, which involved a white cross erected by veterans more than 75 years ago to honor the dead of World War I, splintered the court, 5 to 4. The court’s conservative members prevailed, but six of the nine justices wrote to explain their views. It did not provide a clear rule for the future — or even explicitly say that the cross could remain in place. “To date, the court’s jurisprudence in this area has refrained from making sweeping pronouncements, and this case is ill suited for announcing categorical rules,’’ said Justice Anthony Kennedy. But he wrote that the cross “is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs.’’ “Here,’’ he added, “one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.’’ Kennedy wrote that Congress had probably corrected any problem with the cross being on public land by agreeing to swap a portion of the rock outcropping on which it stands to a veterans group, which has said it will maintain the site as a memorial. A federal court in California, where the cross is located in the vast Mojave National Preserve, had said the land swap was an “illicit’’ way for the government to get around a ruling that the cross violated constitutional protections against government endorsement of religion. The cross was originally erected at Sunrise Rock by a group of World War I veterans who used to gather at the spot for social gatherings. It has been replaced several times, most recently in 1998 by Henry Sandoz, who with his wife, Wanda, mai ntains the 6 1/2-foot metal cross. It was challenged by a former park employee, who objected to a Christian symbol on public land. It was not taken down as a result of the lower court action, but covered with a plywood box. Until the legal battle, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote, “it is likely that the cross was seen by more rattlesnakes than humans.’’
II. HAARETZ - Jordan: Mideast nearing 'explosion'
Jordan's King Abdullah II warned Thursday that the situation in the Middle East could "explode" due to Israel's building of settlements in East Jerusalem. "I am afraid the tension could develop into an explosion with all parties paying the price," the monarch said in a speech to the annual conference of Jordanian ambassadors. His comments came ahead of a meeting this weekend of the Arab League in Cairo, which may herald the resumption of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Abdullah accused Israel of "playing with fire" by carrying out unilateral actions in East Jerusalem which the Jewish state captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. "Israel should choose between living in an isolated fortress in the region or reaching peace with all Arab and Islamic states in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative," he said. The Arab peace plan, which was launched at the Arab summit conference in Beirut in 2002, offers Israel recognition by all Arab states if it pulled out from all the Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem. Two weeks ago, Abdullah told the Chicago Tribune that a war could break out in the Middle East this summer if no progress is made in restarting Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. "If we hit the summer and there's no active [peace] process, there's a very good chance for conflict, and nobody wins when it comes to that," Abdullah said.
III. REUTERS - Iran, Egypt ready for battle at U.N. nuclear meeting
Iran and Egypt are gearing up for battle against the United States and its allies over Israel and developing countries' rights to atomic technology at a major meeting on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to attend the conference, which opens on Monday and runs until May 28. He will be facing off with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who heads the U.S. delegation at the meeting at U.N. headquarters. Diplomats expect Ahmadinejad to take a defiant stand against the United States and its Western allies, accusing them of trying to deprive developing states of nuclear technology while turning a blind eye toward Israel's nuclear capability. The 189 signatories of the landmark 1970 arms control treaty -- which is intended to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and calls on those with atomic warheads to abandon them -- gather every five years to assess compliance with the pact and progress made toward achieving its goals. The last NPT review conference in 2005 was widely considered a disaster. After weeks of procedural bickering led by the former U.S. administration, Egypt and Iran, the meeting ended with no agreement on a final declaration. Analysts and U.N. diplomats hope things will be different this time and that the conference can breathe new life into a treaty that has failed to prevent North Korea from building a nuclear bomb or force Iran to stop uranium enrichment. A Pakistani-led illicit nuclear supply network and slow progress on disarmament have also highlighted the NPT's weaknesses. Israel is presumed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies having one. Like India and Pakistan, it has not signed the NPT and will not participate in the conference. Western envoys say a successful meeting would yield a declaration that hits all three NPT pillars -- disarmament, non-proliferation, and peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic met today with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and thanked him for his country’s support in Serbia’s path to the EU and the struggle to preserve its sovereignty and territorial integrity in Kosovo-Metohija. Cvetkovic especially emphasised Cyprus’ active contribution in the process to establish the legality of the province’s unilaterally declared independence at the international Court of justice. They agreed that Serbia and Cyprus are interested in improving their economic cooperation, increasing investment and further developing their outstanding bilateral relations, based on the traditional friendship and closeness between their countries.
V. KATHIMERINI - FYROM move piques Athens
A bid by the government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to assume the presidency of a Council of Europe body under the name Macedonia is exploitative and a mistake, a government official in Athens said yesterday. Dinos Vrettos, who leads Parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committee, expressed exasperation at Skopje’s use of the title “Macedonian presidency 2010” ahead of its scheduled assumption of the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of Europe’s committee of ministers. “It is a mistake on the part of FYROM to exploit this opportunity,” Vrettos said. In a related development, the US ambassador to FYROM, Philip Reeker, urged Skopje to focus on talks aimed at settling a dispute with Greece over the Balkan country’s official name. Without a resolution, he said, “Macedonia’s future leaves a large question mark.”
A Russian hunter claims he has saved something that can only be described as Bigfoot from a frozen river in central Siberia. Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted a source in the administration of the Tashtagol district of the Perm Region as saying that the incident took place in April this year near the village of Senzaskiye Kichi. The village is located 140 kilometers away from the nearest human settlement and the only connection with its residents is by helicopter. The latest flight to the village brought back a written report about the encounter with the so-called Bigfoot. The letter read that professional hunter Afanasiy Kiskorov together with several other hunters was fishing when they heard a loud cracking of ice and a howl. When they approached the source of the noise, the hunters saw an unusual creature described as “like a huge man covered in dark brown fur.” The creature was in the river, about 10 meters from the bank and it unsuccessfully tried to get out of the water and stand upright. Kiskorov rushed to the rescue and reached out for the drowning creature with a dry tree branch. “Bigfoot” then grabbed the branch, got onto shore, and walked away. Authorities in the Kemerovo Region have repeatedly released stories of Bigfoot sightings over the past few years. According to them, those interested in cryptozoology could help to develop the Siberian tourism industry.
VII. UPI - Putin: Return religious items to church
Legislation is being drafted to return icons and other religious art seized after the Russian Revolution to churches and convents. The proposal has the backing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, The Moscow Times reports. Many museum curators fear art works will not receive proper care in churches. Gennady Vdovin, head of the Ostankino Estate Museum in Moscow, also said smoke from candles can damage icons. Last month, the Russian Orthodox Church regained control of the Novodevichy Convent, a 16th-century complex in Moscow that once housed the sister of Boris Godunov, a 16th century Russian regent, and the sister and estranged first wife of Peter the Great. Because the convent is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site, Putin ordered the property to be managed by the church with the government retaining formal ownership. Church leaders say religious property and art should not be state-controlled. "A temple must be a temple, not a museum. An icon has its place -- not in a museum, but in a functioning temple," Archbishop Hilarion, who is in charge of external relations, told the Times.