I. TOURISMREVIEW - Top 10 Safest Countries in the World
Crime, robberies, murders belong these days to everyday life. If you are lucky, you see the violence only on TV, but then from early morning to the late evening. No wonder people prefer to get rid of the violence at least during their vacations. Tourism-Review.com brings you the TOP 10 of the safest countries in the world announced by OpenTravel.com. So get inspired and find a save place for your vacation! You will not get hurt! For sure! The top 10 are: Cyprus; Denmark; Iceland; Ireland; Japan; Luxembourg; New Zealand; Norway; Singapore and Switzerland.
II. BALKANS.COM - Greece and Serbia: A brotherhood uninterrupted
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said on Friday, after talks with Greek Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitris Droutsas, that Greece absolutely supports Serbia's European integration, as well as preservation of Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Dacic, who is on a visit to Greece, said that while Greek companies are perhaps the biggest investors in Serbia, the volume of foreign trade exchange between the two countries is relatively small compared to the level of investment in Serbia. The First Deputy Prime Minister said that the opportunity for finding common interests may lie in sectors of energy, infrastructure, construction, agriculture, telecommunications and tourism. He recalled that last year 350,000 citizens of Serbia stayed on vacation in Greece even though they had to get visas then, and stressed that Athens was perhaps most helpful in efforts to abolish the visa regime for Serbia.
III. WASHINGTONPOST - Iran to ship uranium to Turkey in nuclear deal
Iran agreed Monday to ship most of its enriched uranium to Turkey in a nuclear fuel swap deal that could ease the international standoff over the country's disputed nuclear program, just as pressure mounts for tougher sanctions. The deal was reached in talks with Brazil and Turkey, elevating a new group of mediators for the first time in the dispute over Iran's nuclear activities. The deal would deprive Iran - at least temporarily - of the stocks of enriched uranium that it could process to the higher levels of enrichment needed in weapons production. The material returned to Iran in the form of fuel rods could not be processed beyond its lower, safer levels, which are suitable for use in the Tehran research reactor. The deal goes to the heart of international concern over Tehran's nuclear activities. Earlier negotiations led by Germany and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China - have sought to stop Iran from enriching uranium, and thereby deprive it of a possible pathway to nuclear weapons.
IV. BLOOMBERG - NATO Urged to Pool Weapons Purchases, Eschew Defense Cuts
NATO allies were warned against slashing defense outlays and urged to buy weapons jointly to prevent the economic crisis from undermining trans-Atlantic security. Military budgets shouldn’t be sacrificed as European governments cut spending after pledging 860 billion euros ($1.1 trillion) in loans to contain Greece’s debt woes, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. “This is about much more than just money: it’s also about security,” Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels today after the presentation of a draft overhaul of allied strategy. “Too deep cuts at the expense of future security may also have damaging economic implications.” Only five of the then 26 North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries met a target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense in 2008 at the onset of the deepest recession since the alliance was founded in 1949. One of them, Greece, is now flirting with a potential default. “If we pool resources together, then economies of scale will make sure that we make more efficient use of our money,” Rasmussen said.
V. ITARTASS - Confrontation with Russia is destructive for Georgia
Confrontation with Russia “is a path destructive for Georgia,” Georgia’s ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze said on Monday. “The settlement of relations with Russia is very important for Georgia,” the former Georgian leader said in a newspaper interview. “No matter who rules Georgia, he must understand that it is necessary to reckon with Russia and it is necessary to settle relations with it, as this is among the vitally important interests of our country.”
VI. JPOST - U.S. Jewish group urges concessions
A group of American Jewish activists and leaders has signed a petition calling on the Israelis and Palestinians to offer “significant concessions and commitments by both sides” to enable the “extremely fragile” proximity talks to succeed. The petition, which models itself after a similar initiative by a group of European Jews last month, has garnered the signatures of some of the most highly placed Jewish thinkers and activists. The list includes Jeffrey Solomon, the chief executive of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, the head of the Reform rabbinate’s umbrella body, and Prof. Steven Cohen, a respected Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion scholar of Jewish sociology and demographics. As with the European JCall petition and the Washington-based J Street organization, this petition also “endorse[s] the American government’s vigorous encouragement of the parties to make the concessions necessary for negotiations to advance. Citing the “extremely fragile hope” for peace represented by the proximity talks, the petition calls on Israel to immediately “cease construction of housing in the disputed territories,” “dismantle the settlements considered illegal under Israeli law,” and “protect Palestinians from maltreatment and violence by extreme elements of the settler community.” It also calls on Israel to “set aside its insistence on exclusive sovereignty over all of expanded Jerusalem, including Arab neighborhoods, where, we anticipate, the designated capital of the new state of Palestine will be located.” The Palestinians, too, must end terrorism and “set aside their claimed ‘right of return’ to Israel, which would undermine the very notion of a Jewish state.” They must also “vigorously oppose incitement against Israel.” While acknowledging that “it is the citizens of Israel and their neighbors who will decide on their future,” the petition insists on the signatories’ right “to call attention to decisions the government of Israel takes which, in our view, endanger the State we hold so dear.”
VII. PRAVMIR - Seventh Sunday after Pascha
In this feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, the Church offers us as Gospel reading the Prayer of Christ as Priest, as St Cyril of Alexandria calls it and after him all the Fathers. Today, on the feast of the Ascension, Christ stands before the throne of the Father; His prayer is not strictly speaking a prayer of intercession; it is rather a prayer of communion with God in His glory. Not only does Christ pray that communion with God be granted to His disciples and apostles, but to all generations of his disciples and apostles. Christ ascended into the heavens not as a spirit, but with His body of flesh. All the texts are emphatic that Christ stands in his own body of flesh in front of the Father. And because of this, through Him we and all mankind are ascending with Him and stand in glory before the Father. The curse of Adam and Eve is annulled and we are restored into Paradise. However, there is in this prayer a verse that has caused and still causes much scandal: “I do not pray for the world.” Especially in our modern society with its values of permissivity and relativism, this saying of Christ causes scandal, and some even say that it is not Christian. Should we not pray for the world? Let us first clarify several points. First: the prayer of Christ is a prayer of communion with God, and there is no way that a prayer of communion can be intended for those who refuse communion, who are outside the Church. When the priest prepares the Proskomedie, he puts particles of the holy bread, one particle for each name. With the Lamb, the particle for the Theotokos and those for the saints, this represents the Church, and only the names of Orthodox Christians can be placed on the discos because, very concretely, there is no communion outside. (It is in the same spirit that today we celebrate the communion of the Church by commemorating the Fathers of the first Ecumenical Council.) This does not mean that we cannot pray for non-Orthodox; on the contrary we are asked to pray, to intercede for all; and we do it at all times. This is the prayer of intercession: the Church intercedes for all, even her enemies. But the Proskomedie, the Communion with the Body and the Blood of Christ, as all the sacraments, are prayers of communion. Imagine for example people who are persecuting Christ. They cannot be included in the prayer of communion because visibly they are not in communion. It would be a lie. But I can pray for them and beseech Christ to change their hearts and bring them to the faith. And this leads me to the second point. By world, in this very case, Christ means those who have turned away from God and the Church, and therefore have placed themselves under the power of Satan. You are either for God or against Him; if you are against Him, you are on the side of the devil. We are asked to fight this world of evil, to challenge it; all of us according to our calling. For most of us this is done through a life of repentance. However, fighting evil is often difficult. On the one hand it should not foster hatred. On the other hand, to love does not mean to accept anything and everything. Christ chased the merchants out of the temple. However, nowhere does it say that He does not love them. Third point, this world of evil is also inside all of us. Within each of us there is good and evil, light and darkness. We fight; we struggle against that which does not belong to God in us. We sin. We are sinners. That does not mean God does not love us. On the contrary God loves the sinners. Therefore He has appointed repentance and confession. And we return through the sacrament of Confession, and then we can again be in Communion. But as long as this has not been done, we are de facto excommunicated; we can cheat, be blind and have no fear of God, but God knows, and Christ cannot pray the Prayer of Communion for these people for they have sinned against the Holy Spirit. The world of sin, the world of those who refuse God, the world of darkness inside each of us — this is the enemy of God. By its very definition it has no access to the prayer of Communion. Those who belong to this world excommunicate themselves. They cannot share in the glory of God. And therefore the world of evil cannot sit before the throne of the Father. But we are asked to intercede for the sinners that they return to God. We are asked to intercede for the world, and ultimately to intercede for our enemies. Who are our enemies? First, they are those who have offended us and make us suffer; they persecute us, they try to remove the faith from us; they curse us. Secondly, they are those who say No to God, the enemies and persecutors of the Faith, those who are away from the truth, the apostates. We must judge and condemn their actions, but we must not judge nor condemn the people themselves: on the contrary we are asked to pray that they return to God. However, the Fathers are very prudent. The prayer of intercession for the enemies is only for those who are more advanced in prayer. For they know that there are risks in such a prayer. Loving the enemies without discernment may lead to a form of solidarity with them, with sin and with evil. Or it can lead to a form of pride: “pity” instead of compassion. Love of the enemy has several degrees; the first ones are accessible to all of us. Do not be the one to attack, and do not try to take revenge. Leave justice in the hands of God. These are the first two basic levels of the love of the enemy as underlined by St John Chrysostom. The more advanced levels are: not to resist, as did the Martyrs. Show patience, endure, and suffer. Then not be afflicted, remain impassible, indifferent. A higher degree, which is the best way to progress in humility, is considering the offenses as a blessing. Therefore, rejoice if you are persecuted, offended, if people spit on you and despise you. And give thanks to God. Chastisement is education; it is a medicine. Another degree is to have no hatred for those who cause us harm, no anger, no resentment. Do not accuse your enemies, do not say bad things about them, but forgive in truth. Then God will pardon your own sins. St Symeon the New Theologian says that loving the enemies is forgetting the sufferings, forgetting what happened. Without these first six steps, our heart cannot be sincere in praying for them. Only then, to love our enemies becomes seeking reconciliation with them. We can have compassion for them and pray for them. We can ask God with a true heart that they not be punished. We can ask that they be forgiven. If your heart can suffer for those who have persecuted you, as St Maxim the Confessor says, then true love of enemies has been given to you. And you may even feel affection for them and want to do them good. Love of the enemies, which is a form of prayer of intercession, is acquired only after many steps of an incessant spiritual struggle. Without the grace of God we cannot do it. Pray that this Grace, which is the result of the prayer of Communion of Christ, be given to you that you may pray and intercede for others.