Serbia marked a remembrance observation Thursday for victims of the World War II Nazi genocide of minorities and dissidents. Serbian President Boris Tadic led a ceremony in Belgrade dedicated to Serbs, gypsies and Jews killed by the Nazis from 1941-45, the state-run Tanjug news agency reported. The ceremony marked the anniversary of the Allied liberation of the Jasenovac concentration camp, where 500,000 Serbs, 80,000 gypsies and 23,000 Jews were killed along with thousands of political dissidents, the report said. Survivors, victims' family members and diplomatic representatives from Germany and Israel attended the Belgrade event, Tanjug said. To read more about the Holocaust Era in Croatia - Jasenovac - visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website by clicking here.
The ruling coalition of political parties in Armenia's parliament has called for suspending talks aimed at normalizing relations with Turkey, Armenia's southern neighbor and long-time adversary. The decision marks a setback to a U.S., European and Russian-supported peace process aimed at reopening the border between Armenia and Turkey and the establishment of embassies in both countries' capitals. In a statement published on Thursday, Armenia's parliamentary coalition accused Turkey of failing to ratify internationally agreed peace protocols before an agreed deadline. The protocols were signed by the foreign ministers from Armenia and Turkey last October, under the watchful eyes of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a ceremony that was nearly canceled because of a dispute between the Turks and the Armenians. The parliamentary coalition says the Turkish side's stance is "unacceptable," particularly statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan making ratification of peace protocols "directly dependent upon the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Azerbaijan." Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan fought a bitter war over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is now controlled by Armenian troops. The front line is still volatile, with periodic deadly clashes. The Turkish government says is still formulating a response to the Armenian parliamentary decision. Thursday's announcement comes just two days before Armenians around the world will commemorate the 1915 massacre of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
III. WASHINGTONPOST - France wants to apply burqa ban to tourists
France's government on Thursday announced it would apply a proposed ban on face-covering Islamic veils to visiting tourists as well as residents, even as skepticism mounted over the legality of the plan. Junior family minister Nadine Morano said visitors would have to "respect the law" and uncover their faces, prompting critics to speculate whether Saudi luxury shoppers would be forced to unveil themselves on the glitzy Champs-Elysees. "When you arrive in a country you have to respect the laws of that country," Morano said on France Info radio. "If I go to certain countries I'm also forced to respect the law." French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday backed a strict public ban of the veil, commonly referred to in France as the burqa, eschewing more moderate proposals that focused on limits in state institutions such as schools and town halls. The draft bill will be presented to the cabinet next month. Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Wednesday he was ready to take on a "legal risk" by supporting the ban, which could be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it violates freedom of religion. France's highest court has already warned the government that a complete ban could be unlawful. The opposition Socialists have repeatedly spoken out against full veils, but are doubtful about the effectiveness of the ban. "I can't imagine policemen running through the streets to pull the veils off women," Socialist parliamentarian Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said on i-Tele television. The government says women who wear all-covering veils, such as the Afghan burqa or the niqab, would not be forced to take them off on the spot but would be asked for their name and address, and be sent a warning and a fine.
IV. FOCUS - Game of nerves between Skopje and Athens
Athens and Skopje are playing some game of nerves around the arrival of Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in Athens for the conference organized by The Economist magazine. A week before the conference starts it is still uncertain whether the Macedonian prime minister will get a permission for his airplane to land in Athens. Thus, Gruevski has not announced whether he will attend the conference yet, while the Greek ministry does not say whether there will be a landing permission. The question is who will surrender first, the newspaper says, citing publications in the Greek media, which say that Gruevski is well aware that this is hardly likely to happen. According to the Greek media, the Macedonian prime minister will wait until the very last moment to make a show after the negative reaction of Greece and then he will ‘dramatically’ announce that he has not been allowed to land in Greece with the state airplane, which bears the name and national symbols of the republic of Macedonia.
Aides say Israel's prime minister has officially rejected President Barack Obama's demand that Israel suspend all construction in east Jerusalem. They say Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his response to Obama over the weekend. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the contacts between the two leaders were private. Netanyahu's position conforms with long-standing Israeli policy but presents a significant obstacle to resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel delivered its position ahead of the arrival later Thursday of Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as capital of their future state and see Israeli building there as cementing Israeli claims to that sector of the city.
VI. RIANOVOSTI - Russia has no plans for new military bases in other countries
Russia has no plans to build new military facilities anywhere in the world similar to its naval base in Ukraine's Crimea, the Russian prime minister said on Thursday. "I would like to reiterate that Crimea is a unique case that has evolved historically," Vladimir Putin said, adding there was no need to build military bases in other countries and requested "our partners" not to bother with the same kind of requests. The lease agreement on the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Ukraine, signed on Wednesday, extends Russian naval presence in the port of Sevastopol for 25 years after the current lease expires in 2017, and may be further extended by another five years. Putin also said Russia will pay higher rent for its base in Ukraine starting in 2017 and payments will be made in hard cash. Yanukovych has pledged to move Ukraine away from the pro-Western stance of former President Viktor Yushchenko, who vowed that Russia would have to look for a new main base for its Black Sea Fleet once the current deal expires in 2017. The Ukrainian opposition, however, has said any prolongation of Russian military presence will require amendments to the Constitution as well as a national referendum. Yushchenko's party said Yanukovych should be impeached for signing the agreement extending Russian naval presence in Crimea because it contradicts the Ukrainian Constitution. Mykola Tomenko, deputy speaker of parliament and a leader of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (YTB), said last Wednesday Article 17 of the Constitution forbids foreign military bases on Ukrainian soil.
Daughter of a richest Guatemala residents and a former Catholic nun founded an Orthodox monastery in mountains by the Amatitlan Lake near one of the most active volcanoes of the Pacaya Region. Until her 36 birthday Mother Superior of the Holy Trinity Monastery Sister Iness was a nun in a Catholic monastery. However, when she got acquainted with life of St. Seraphim of Sarov, her life was changed and the woman started reading the holy fathers and then converted to Orthodoxy, the Trud-7 paper wrote on Thursday. "Speaking to the point, I feel confident in Orthodoxy, I feel tranquil and I feel…a kind of stable. My soul is calm in Orthodoxy," Sister Iness said. Grand Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity in Guatemala is protected by a high fence and controlled by the security service armed with pump rifles and automatic pistols. Once Guatemala criminal groups asked a fee from Sister Iness "for protection" of her monastery, but eventually they volunteered to protect the church and its surrounding territory. Iness's father, local oligarch and well known in Guatemala economist bears the major part of financial expenses connected with church building. First, he was against his daughter's decision to leave Catholicism, but then at the age of 84 converted to Orthodoxy himself.