I. REUTERS - Cyprus probes weapons on Sudan-bound ship
Cyprus has intercepted a vessel carrying military equipment thought to be bound for Sudan, under an arms embargo by the United Nations and the European Union. Authorities said on Tuesday the Antigua and Barbuda flagged cargo vessel had been prevented from leaving Cypriot waters since June 11, when it anchored off the southern port of Limassol requesting refuelling. "There is material (on board) which is considered prohibited from leaving Cyprus right now," Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides told Cyprus radio. "When we speak of prohibited material it means explosives or military material." Police said the vessel was sailing to Sudan and then Singapore. An official from Sudan's foreign ministry on Tuesday said he had no information on the vessel in Cyprus. Asked about the cargo, Paschalides said: "I cannot specify right now what material it is, whether it is tanks, not tanks or other things, but there is definitely military material which comes under export control." A security source said authorities were investigating whether the cargo contravened a U.N. arms embargo on all armed groups operating in Sudan's Darfur region, the site of a seven-year conflict pitting government troops and allied militias against rebel fighters. The European Union, of which Cyprus is a member, also has a blanket ban on arms shipments to Sudan.
Digs in Cyprus have uncovered what may be soldiers' barracks belonging to a sprawling Phoenician fortress that was the island's largest ancient administrative hub dating back at least 2,500 years, the Cypriot Antiquities Department director said Monday. Maria Hadjicosti said the discovery this year of the two building complexes in the ancient kingdom of Idalion, some 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the modern-day capital Nicosia, offers more proof of the site's significance. "The discoveries further reinforce Idalion's role as the island's largest center of administration in ancient times," Hadjicosti said. The Phoenician kings of Kition, a southern coastal town about 14 miles (23 kilometers) southeast of Idalion — now known as Larnaca — had conquered the Greek-ruled city in the middle of the 5th century B.C. and governed it for around 150 years. Ink inscriptions on 300 marble slabs and pottery shards found at the site over nearly two decades of digs in the 2-square kilometer (square-mile) site indicate how Phoenicians collected taxes from Idalion's residents. Excavations on Cyprus have uncovered settlements dating back to around 9000 B.C. Cyprus then saw successive waves of colonization, including Mycenaean Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans and, in the Middle Ages, Franks and Venetians. The island was conquered by Ottoman Turks in 1571 and became part of the British Empire in 1878 before winning independence in 1960.
III. B92 - Council of Europe discusses Kosovo
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is today discussing the situation in Kosovo, said reports. Pieter Feith spoke about Kosovo at the European Parliament (EP) headquarters in Strasbourg in his capacity as head of the International Civilian Office (ICO) in Priština. He is also EU's representative in the province. The discussion about Kosovo will for Serbia be the most important part of the summer sitting of the assembly. There will not be any Kosovo Albanian government representatives at the meeting. Rapporteur of the CoE Political Affairs Committee and former Swedish Defense Minister Bjorn von Sydow has prepared a report on Kosovo in which he points out the neutrality of the CoE and insists primarily on standards and rather than status. The Swedish official in his report also stressed poor rule of law in Kosovo, pointing out problems of minority communities and corruption, including in institutions, according to reports. Kosovo's ethnic Albanians unilaterally declared independence in February 2008, which Serbia rejected as an illegal act of secession. The proclamation has been recognized by 22 of EU's 27 member-states, and the territory has not been able to join the UN.
IV. RIANOVOSTI - Situation in North Caucasus remains 'serious and delicate'
The situation in the North Caucasus remains "most serious and most delicate", the PACE rapporteur said during the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)'s plenary session on Tuesday. "The worst and most massive violations of human rights take place [In the North Caucasus]," Dick Marty from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights said, adding Russian authorities must fight terrorism "in conformity with their own legislation and with their international commitments." In March, the rapporteur visited Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, where he met the presidents of all three republics as well as prosecutors, human rights activists and local residents. Following his visit to the North Caucasus, Marty said the situation in Grozny has totally changed in comparison with 2004. "We saw for ourselves that the entire center has been rebuilt and no outward signs of the war are visible," he said. PACE parliamentarians said the international community should cooperate with Russian authorities in combating terrorism, "guarantee adequate protection to Chechen exiles" whom they have received in their territory and "consider with the greatest care and caution extradition requests in respect of exiles from the North Caucasian republics who would risk being killed, subject to torture or an unfair trial."
"Hezbollah almost assassinated a senior Israeli figure," reported officials close to the organization to Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai, which ran the item on Tuesday. The report is not corroborated by any other source. The newspaper reported that Hezbollah "managed to follow" an Israeli official deemed a "fat fish" while he was on vacation at a resort. Reportedly, Hezbollah cells stationed on the site nearly assassinated the Israeli, but the operation was called off at the last minute over the Gaza-bound flotilla raid three weeks ago. According to the sources, Hezbollah chose to cancel the hit so as not to provide Israel an opportunity to diverge world attention from "the Israeli piracy operation on international waters." The sources claimed that the Israeli official was "rewarded his life" and that he was called to return to Israel in order to deal with various aspects of the flotilla affair. Ever since the February 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, Hezbollah has emphasized that the organization will respond when and where it sees fit. The newspaper also reported that Hezbollah has declined comment on the publication, but that sources close to the organization reported that Hezbollah leadership has already issued directives on how to respond should Nasrallah or any other top-ranking leader, be they military or political, be assassinated.
VI. YAHOONEWS - US Afghanistan commander ordered to White House
US commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal was ordered to the White House to personally explain his criticism of the president and his senior advisers, a top US official said. "McChrystal has been directed to attend (Wednesday's) monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person" rather than appear in a secure satellite teleconference "to explain to the Pentagon and the commander in chief his quotes in the piece about his colleagues," a White House official said.In a profile in the magazine Rolling Stone, McChrystal jokes sarcastically about Vice President Joe Biden for his skepticism of the commander's war strategy, and imagined ways of "dismissing the vice president with a good one-liner." McChrystal also told the magazine that he felt "betrayed" by the US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, in a White House debate over war strategy last year. And an unnamed McChrystal adviser says in the article that the general came away unimpressed after meeting with Obama in the Oval Office a year ago. "It was a 10-minute photo op," the general's adviser says. "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was... he didn't seem very engaged," the adviser added. A McChrystal aide also called the national security adviser, Jim Jones, a retired general, a "clown" who is "stuck in 1985." McChrystal issued a statement late Monday apologizing for his remarks to the magazine.
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah and His Eminence, Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at Saint Nicholas Cathedral on Sunday, 20 June 2010. The Liturgy marked Archbishop Justinian's first visit to the cathedral. According to a press release posted on the website of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, the occasion testified to "the most warm and cordial relations between the Orthodox Churches in America and Russia [that] have developed and strengthened for the benefit of the peoples of both countries." At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, the hierarchs exchanged gifts, while Archbishop Justinian offered greetings from His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, expressing the Patriarch's brotherly support for Metropolitan Jonah's position as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America. He also congratulated Metropolitan Jonah on the feast of Saint Jonah of Moscow, the Metropolitan's patron.