I. WIREUPDATE - Iraqi security forces arrest suspected al-Qaeda
Iraqi security forces arrested a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq member during searches in Mosul on Friday, the U.S. Army said. Several suspected criminal associated were also arrested. Iraqi security forces, along with U.S. advisors, searched several buildings for a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq member who is allegedly involved in the facilitation of foreign fighters. "Information and evidence gathered at the scene led Iraqi forces to identify and arrest the warranted individual and one suspected [al-Qaeda in Iraq] criminal associate," the U.S. Army said in a statement, without identifying the suspects. During another operation approximately 34 kilometers (21 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi security forces and U.S. advisors searched two buildings for a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq leader who is allegedly involved in improvised explosive device production. The security force searched the two buildings, which were approximately 330 meters (0.20 mile) apart, leading to the discovery of machine gun ammunition and several assault vests with full weapon magazines. "The information and evidence gathered at the scene led Iraqi forces to identify and arrest four suspected [al-Qaeda in Iraq] criminal associates," the statement said. The operations were conducted pursuant to a warrant issued by an Iraqi judge, the military added.
Barack Obama has treated Dmitry Medvedev to lunch at a common burger place, surprising its staff and patrons in the process. The presidents signed cards, shook hands and posed in pictures for those who dared to ask. The American president ordered two "real American burgers" for the both of them, choosing cheddar cheese, jalapeno and mushrooms for Dmitry Medvedev and cheddar cheese, salted onions, lettuce and tomatoes and some pickles for himself. “This is on me. I am a big spender, I wanna show off,” joked Obama when the Russian president suggested assisting him with the payment. “Haven't had a burger in a while. Lunch with Obama at Ray's Hell Burger” Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Twitter account after the meeting. Since the launch of his Twitter account on June 23, Dmitry Medvedev has been actively updating it (KremlinRussia_e – the English version, KremlinRussia – the Russian) with details of his visit’s schedule, pictures of him in Apple’s office and with Obama at the press conference, as well as reactions to hot topics like the gas spat with Belarus. After lunch at the joint press conference, Medvedev discussed with Obama the advantages Twitter has over the presidential phone line. “As a personal passion of the president and during his visit to Silicon Valley this week, he was at the headquarters of Twitter, where he opened his own account,” Obama said. “I have one as well, so we may finally be able to throw away those red phones that have been sitting around for so long.” Thursday’s events finalized Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the US. Both presidents left for the G8 and subsequent G20 summits in Canada afterwards.
III. INTERFAX - Russian Orthodox Church and Catholic Church of Poland seek to reconcile people of two countries
The Moscow Patriarchate and the Catholic Church work on a joint document covering church contribution to Russia-Poland reconciliation. The first session of the working group of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Poland on the elaboration of a document on the contribution of Churches to reconciliation between peoples of Russia and Poland took place in Warsaw on June 24, the synodal Department for External Church Relations reports. The Moscow Patriarchate was represented by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the DECR, the Catholic Church in Poland – by the Primate of Poland Archbishop Henryk Muszynski. The working group discussed two versions of the document prepared by the Orthodox and Catholic delegations, reached agreement on its structure and main contents, and decided that they will consider the grievances of the past in the spirit of Christ compassion and mutual forgiveness, whereas experts will make thorough research into the authenticity of historical facts and interpret them. The major part of the document will contain definitions of the spheres of cooperation between the two Churches at present and in the future for the good of the peoples of Poland and Russia. The next session is due to take place in Moscow.
Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej expressed "deep concern" over the incorrect translation of the part of Pieter Feith's recent address before the EP. The EU representative in Kosovo spoke about the stance of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) towards Kosovo. The patriarch now requested that the EU office in Belgrade apologizes for the "grave error". The patriarch sent a letter to EU Belgrade office chief Peter Sorensen expressing extreme disappointment over the translation of Feith's views on the situation in the southern Serbian province. In his address in the European Parliament on Tuesday, Feith noted that “the transition of the Serbian Orthodox Church towards a more moderate approach in Kosovo is another positive development,” it is stated in the patriarch's letter. The letter adds that the same sentence in the Serbian translation distributed by the EU office in Belgrade might be interpreted to mean that the transition of the Serbian Orthodox Church towards a more moderate approach to the Kosovo issue was another positive development. "There is a big difference between 'a more moderate approach in Kosovo' and 'a more moderate approach to the Kosovo issue'," the letter said. Patriarch Irinej demanded a public correction and apology from the EU office for this serious error, it was stated in the letter of the Patriarch and the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The statement indicates that the attitude of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the status of the southern Serbian province is clear and that the Church neither changed nor intends to change its stance on the issue which has been clearly regulated by the Serbian Constitution and the will of the country's people. It is the standpoint of the Church that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia and that the self-proclaimed independence of the province by the Kosovo Albanians and part of the international community is an illegal act contrary to international law, it was stated in the letter.
V. THEPARLIAMENT - EU urged to press Turkey on Cyprus negotiations
The EU has been urged to press Turkey to help speed up reconciliation negotiations on the divided island of Cyprus. The appeal comes in the wake of the latest round of talks between leaders from the island's Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities. According to a senior Greek Cypriot aide, the discussions, which took place in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Nicosia on Wednesday, " failed to make any progress whatsoever" on the thorny issue or property rights. This focuses on property and land Greek Cypriots were forced to abandon in the north of the island following the 1974 Turkish invasion. Speaking exclusively to TheParliament.com, George Iacovou, a close aide of Greek Cypriot president Demetris Christofias, lambasted the Turkish Cypriot negotiators for making a set of "totally unreasonable" proposals at the meeting. These included, he said, an insistence that even in any final agreement Cyprus should still retain "two economies and two foreign policies". The Turkish side, he said, also insisted at the meeting that under any solution to the Cyprus problem, Turks should be afforded immediate freedom of movement in areas such as labour, goods and services, as is currently enjoyed in EU member states. Up to 90,000 Greek Cypriots say that property and land belonging to them which they were forced to leave in 1974 should be returned. But Iacovou said the Turkish Cypriot negotiators "merely" offered to pay compensation "and then only at one tenth of the actual value of these properties". He said there were also "unworkable" proposals tabled on how EU affairs should be conducted under any reunification of the island. Branding some of the demands as "obnoxious" he said the EU "must do more" to pressure Turkey to "come up with more reasonable proposals."
North and South Korea marked the 60th anniversary of the Korean War with sober commemorations and sharp rhetoric as tensions continued to ripple between the two countries over the sinking in March of a South Korean warship. North Korea -- which took the opportunity to blame the United States for causing nearly $65 trillion in "human and material damage" over the last six decades -- continued to ramp up its rhetoric, accusing America of "persistently antagonizing" the country over the sinking of the Cheonan. South Korea blames North Korea for the sinking, which left 46 people dead, but Pyongyang hotly denies the claim. Top South Korean officials on Friday urged the North to stop its provocations as they honored the war dead at ceremonies. The North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, in what would become known as the Korean War. The fighting ended on July 27, 1953, when an armistice agreement was signed. Since there has never been a peace treaty, the Korean War has technically never ended. While there have been efforts over the years to defuse hostilities and pursue peace and stability, great anguish has emerged over the Cheonan, which South Korea says was sunk by a torpedo. At a national ceremony on Friday commemorating the start of the war, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged North Korea to stop what he says are military provocations. The Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying "our ultimate goal is not a military confrontation but peaceful reunification." In another ceremony in South Korea, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said, "the Cheonan incident reminded us of the sad reality of the divided South and North." The U.S. Congress on Thursday recognized the war anniversary and paid tribute to veterans, noting that 37,000 U.S. soldiers died in the war and around 8,000 were reported missing. Around 28,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in South Korea. The causes of the Korean War stem back to the 1940s, when the 38th parallel division of Korea occurred and the two newly-formed countries became ideologically opposite, with the North as communist and the South as capitalist. North Korea invaded the South in 1950 to achieve its goal of Korean unification under communist rule.
New Jersey is the Garden State, but that nickname wasn’t always so secure. Unofficially, it dates to at least 1876, when Abraham Browning of Camden likened “our Garden State” to “an immense barrel, filled with good things to eat and open at both ends, with Pennsylvanians grabbing from one end and New Yorkers from the other.” But in 1954, when the State Legislature voted to add the moniker to license plates, Governor Robert B. Meyner vetoed the measure, saying, “I do not believe that the average citizen of New Jersey regards his state as more peculiarly identifiable with gardening for farming than any of its other industries or occupations.” He was overruled. Nowadays New Jersey ranks second among states in blueberry production, third in cranberries and spinach and fourth in bell peppers, peaches and head lettuce, the official state Web site, nj.gov, boasts. The New Jersey Botanical Garden, in Ringwood, in the northern part of the state, was the most pleasant surprise: an enchanting collection of specimens. It helps to stop at the visitors’ center, which offers a map and brochures about each specialty garden. Equally worth a trip is the 127-acre Frelinghuysen Arboretum, in Morris Township, which describes itself as “part English-style park, part flower gardens, part working farm” built around a Colonial Revival home. A little farther south, in Bernardsville, is the Cross Estate Gardens, within Morristown National Historical Park. Drive right up to the mansion, a Queen Anne-style summer retreat dating to 1905 (now closed), and park in the circular driveway. The very appealing gardeLikewise, the “sunken garden and lagoon” features marble urns, a staircase flanked by lions, a bridge, a fountain and a wonderful view of Lake Carasaljo, but no plants or flowers to speak of. The formal garden, a maze of boxwood hedges, has seen better days and had none of the advertised annuals or perennials on my visit. But there is a gem here: a one-acre Japanese garden designed by Takeo Shiota, who plotted Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, which, when it opened in 1915, was the first public Japanese garden in America. Shiota was known for traveling all over Japan — on foot — to learn the natural landscape.ns, laid out in the 1930s, are entered through a nearby wooden gate. Drive south, to the Pine Barrens, stopping in Lakewood at Georgian Court University. The campus, once the winter estate of the robber baron Jay Gould’s son George Jay Gould, is home to the Sister Mary Grace Burns Arboretum. The wonderful aroma of fresh-cut grass was in the air. Little wonder: the largest garden here — the so-called Italian garden — is more grass, statuary and flowering trees than flowers. Amid its formal design, with crisscrossing paths, pergolas and Greek-god statuary, are groves of Colorado blue spruce, Norway spruce, yellow poplar and Southern magnolia. In nearby Princeton, you can enjoy fantasies of paying a call on the governor as you drive past a columned mansion on the way to the parking lot of the Morven Museum & Garden, which was the New Jersey governor’s mansion from 1945-81. This 18th-century home of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was converted to a museum in 2004, and its lower floors are now galleries for furniture and decorative arts. The five-acre property, fronted by a stately lawn, counts as the garden. On one side a horse chestnut walk blooms in spring with delicate pink-and-white flowers. Out back, a square lawn is bordered by blue milkweed, irises and blue bells, along with deep red peonies. Going Down Those Garden Paths: NEW JERSEY BOTANICAL GARDEN 2 Morris Road, Ringwood; (973) 962-9534, njbg.org. Open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free. FRELINGHUYSEN ARBORETUM 53 East Hanover Avenue, Morris Township; (973) 326-7600; arboretumfriends.org. Open from 9 a.m. to dusk daily. Free. CROSS ESTATE GARDENS Old Jockey Hollow Road, Bernardsville, in Morristown National Historic Park; (973) 539-2016, Ext. 210 (National Park Service); crossestategardens.org. Open from dawn to dusk. Free. SISTER MARY GRACE BURNS ARBORETUM Georgian Court University, 900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood; (732) 987-2373, georgian.edu/arboretum. Open 8 a.m. to dusk daily. Free. MORVEN MUSEUM & GARDEN 55 Stockton Street, Princeton; (609) 924-8144, historicmorven.org. Open Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Closed on holidays. Gardens are free. For the museum: $5; $4 for students and those 60 or older; free for children under 8.