I. THEINDEPENDENT - Horrors of Bosnian War relived in British court
An engineering professor masterminded a series of war crimes, including ordering the execution of wounded Yugoslav soldiers, when he briefly became President of Bosnia at the outbreak of war 18 years ago, a court in London heard yesterday. Ejup Ganic, 65, was arrested at Heathrow in March this year on an arrest warrant issued by the Serbian authorities which he and his family claim is a politically-motivated attempt by Belgrade to rewrite the history of the Bosnian War which broke out in 1992, eventually claiming more than 10,000 lives. British prosecutors representing the Serbian government yesterday outlined evidence that Dr Ganic, a friend of Baroness Thatcher, "personally commanded" a succession of atrocities in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, when for 48 hours he became the country's President on 2 and 3 May 1992. The chaotic events which presaged the bloody dissolution of the former Yugoslavia were resurrected nearly two decades later in a courtroom at the City of Westminster magistrates' court as lawyers outlined the case as to why Dr Ganic should be returned to Belgrade to face charges of "grave breaches" of the Geneva Convention. Dr Ganic denies all the allegations. The skirmishes came to a head on the evening of 3 May when a United Nations convoy, organised to resolve the hostage crisis by exchanging Mr Izetbegovic for a senior JNA general and his troops, was fired upon by Bosnian forces while retreating from a barracks in central Sarajevo, killing a large number of Serb soldiers, some of them already wounded. James Lewis QC, representing the Serbian authorities, told the court that the order for this and four other alleged atrocities came directly from Dr Ganic and the Bosnian high command. He said: "It is alleged that Dr Ganic agreed with others to carry out a course of conduct which would necessarily mean the commission of war crimes." Arguing that the Serb arrest warrant was backed by reliable evidence, Mr Lewis added: "This is not a trumped-up charge. It is a matter which needs to be adjudicated upon before a proper tribunal. So intimidating were these attacks, so high profile were they, that they cannot have taken place without authorisation at the very highest level." Court documents stated that the claimed atrocities began at around 11am on 2 May when Bosnian troops attacked an officers' club, leading to the capture of catering staff who were later tortured and executed. A JNA medical convoy sent to retrieve the injured from that attack was then fired upon with machine guns and rockets, destroying two ambulances before 11 soldiers with their arms held up in surrender were picked off, the court heard. One witness said the surrendering soldiers were killed or wounded by opponents "carrying out a liquidation as if they were at the firing range". Prosecutors said that in the following 24 hours a military hospital was attacked by sniper fire and grenades before the order to carry out the assault on the retreating JNA column was given from a room in the Bosnian presidency in which Dr Ganic was present. Speaking outside the court, the academic, who was greeted by protesters waving banners reading "Ganic – blood on his hands" and "Gotcha Ganic", denied the allegations.
Jennifer Lopez has entered a diplomatic minefield on ethnically split Cyprus after agreeing to perform in its Turkish-held north, stirring anger among thousands of Greek Cypriots. Lopez is scheduled to perform at the opening of a luxury hotel in north Cyprus on July 24, triggering fury from Greek Cypriots who say it's a slap in the face to people forced to flee from northern Cyprus during a Turkish invasion in 1974. Cypriots have flooded a facebook site with angry demands the Latina star cancel her trip while organizers of the event say the show will go on. Lopez's publicists were not immediately available for comment. Local newspapers reported she was being paid $3 million for her one-off performance. By Wednesday, a facebook page campaigning against the Lopez visit had topped 14,000 members. They were in the vast majority Greeks, with the rate of increase up by about 2,000 per day since its launch last week. Lopez was due to jet in to northern Cyprus, a breakaway statelet recognized only by Ankara, [Turkey].
III. EURASIAREVIEW - Belgium Aims To Help Resolve FYROMacedonia-Greece Deadlock
The Belgian EU presidency is willing to help facilitate an agreement between Macedonia and Greece on the name dispute in order to make the start of accession talks between Skopje and Brussels possible. “Belgium will endeavor to seek an agreement to start accession negotiations,” Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said in the European Parliament in Strasbourg today. Leterme made the remarks while presenting the priorities of his government for its six month presidency of the EU. This readiness to help Macedonia on its European path was also expressed on Tuesday when Leterme met in Brussels with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski. Athens and Skopje are locked in a long lasting spat over the use of the name Macedonia. Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims over its own northern province, which is also called Macedonia. Athens blocked Skopje’s invitation to join NATO in 2008 and has stalled its efforts to join the EU over the unresolved row. Gruevski, speaking after the meeting on Tuesday, said that many things depend on the steps that will be undertaken by the Greek government, Macedonian media report. “We don’t want to insist that we are either optimists or pessimists, but we want to find a solution through a process that is led by Mr. Nimetz and we want to continue to search for the solution which would normalize relations with Greece and which would be acceptable for both sides,” Gruevski said.
IV. AFP - N.Korea warns against UN censure
North Korea warned Wednesday of a "do-or-die" battle if the UN Security Council adopts statement condemning it for a deadly attack on a South Korean warship earlier this year. If the council adopts a document "pulling up (North Korea) even a bit through sordid collusion and nexus," the North will regard this as "an intolerable and grave infringement" on its dignity, a state committee said. The North's army and people "will not rule out a just, do-or-die battle to protect the sovereignty of the country," the Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by state media. South Korea, pointing to the findings of a multinational investigation, has accused its communist neighbour of torpedoing the 1,200-tonne corvette with the loss of 46 sailors near the disputed Yellow Sea border on March 26. The South has announced its own reprisals, including cutting off most trade, with strong US support. It has also asked the 15-member Security Council to condemn its neighbour. Unlike many other nations, China and Russia, two of the council's five permanent members, have not publicly accused Pyongyang of being behind the sinking. The North has denied any involvement in sinking the corvette and has previously threatened a military response to any UN censure. The nuclear-armed state said last week it would bolster its nuclear weaponry with an unspecified new method in response to what it called US hostility. Last September Pyongyang announced it had reached the final stage of enriching uranium, a second way of making nuclear bombs in addition to the country's plutonium-based operation.
V. JPOST - UAE asks US to stop Iran by all means
The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that it would be difficult to co-exist with a nuclear Iran and that it would support any actions the US took to prevent such a possibility The Washington Times reported. Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba reportedly endorsed the military option if sanctions do not stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. "I think it's a cost-benefit analysis," Otaiba said to an audience in Aspen, Colorado. "I think despite the large amount of trade we do with Iran, which is close to $12 billion … there will be consequences, there will be a backlash and there will be problems with people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country; that is going to happen no matter what." "If you are asking me, 'Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran?,' my answer is still the same: 'We cannot live with a nuclear Iran.' I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the UAE," Otaiba reportedly said, in response to a question after a public interview with the Atlantic magazine. His remarks surprised many in the audience, The Washington Times reported. John R. Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, told The Washington Times that Otaiba's comments reflect the views of many Arab states that "recognize the threat posed by a nuclear Iran." "They also know — and worry — that the Obama administration's policies will not stop Iran," he told The Times. Arab leaders, Mr. Bolton said, regard a pre-emptive strike as "the only alternative." Otaiba "was thus only speaking the truth from his perspective," Mr. Bolton reportedly said.
VI. RIANOVOSTI - Georgian opposition leader praises Saakashvili for Russia rethink
A Georgian opposition leader who has worked for two years to improve ties with Russia announced on Wednesday he was halting his efforts as President Mikheil Saakashvili had declared his readiness to start talks with Moscow. Zurab Nogaideli, a onetime Georgian prime minister who leads the A Just Georgia party, praised Saakashvili's turnaround and said he would suspend negotiations with the pro-Kremlin United Russia to allow the government to engage with Moscow. Saakashvili said last week that Georgia was ready to develop ties with a "modernized Russia." "We have no interest in confrontation with Russia," the Georgian president said in late June. "We are ready for dialog with them, including the [current] Russian leadership. We recognize them as partners in talks." Nogaideli said he expected the new willingness for talks to produce results. "It's a very interesting idea, an idea about which I have been speaking almost every day for the past two years and because of which... Saakashvili declared us enemies of the country. I hope, everybody will draw conclusions now," Nogaideli said at a press conference after returning from Moscow following talks with United Russia.Although he praised Saakashvili's intentions, the opposition leader criticized his methods as overly secretive. Nogaideli said the president had used several envoys to try to set up ties with Moscow, whereas the dialog should be conducted in the open and based solely on interests of the state.
VII. PRAVMIR - On Tithing
The Church is the Body of Christ, and just as Christ united in Himself human and heavenly nature, in the Church the heavenly is united with the earthly. The Church is not only comprised of apostles, saints, and holy monks, but also of us—exactly in as much as we submit our earthly selves to the heavenly—”I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20); in as much as we live in Christ. As the Lord builds His Heavenly Church through the saints, He builds the Earthly Church through us. In the Old Testament times, God gave His people commandments by which they could live righteous lives that were pleasing to God. One of the commandments was a law about tithing. Having received earthly blessings, the people of God gave the first and best—a tenth of all they had—for the upkeep of God’s Temple. The Temple of the Lord was magnificent and the services went on without ceasing. Now that we no longer live under the law; we are not required to fulfill the Old Testament commandments: we don’t have to eat kosher foods, nor are we forced to tithe ten percent of our income. But Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). That is, He came to fulfill with everything perfect and good; and now it is not the fulfillment of commandments that God requires of His people, but holiness: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). It is no longer “an eye for an eye,” but “love” (Matt. 22:39); no longer “give ten percent”, but “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me ” (Matt. 25:40). From the very beginning, the time of the holy apostles, the Church of Christ has cared for orphans, fed the hungry, cared for the needy, sent missionaries to those people who had not yet heard the Gospel: to the Romans and Galatians, to the Jews and Greeks, to the Franks and Slavs. And what churches were built! How the people cared for the House of God! And how they loved the Church services! Sadly, nowadays not very many Orthodox Christian communities can care for the poor, send missionaries, or even hold daily services to the One Who continually cares for us. The priests and deacons who serve in the Holy Altar are forced to leave God’s services and, in violation of canon law, obtain secular employment in order to feed themselves and their families. The Church is now standing with an outstretched hand, begging Christians (!) to give to God’s temple at least a small part of what rightfully belongs to Him. We are not required to bring a tenth of our income to the Church; we can bring twenty, thirty, or even one-hundred percent, as did the poor widow (Mark 12:42-43). But we can start with a small step. We can at least bring as much as the Old Testament Hebrews, at least the ten percent that rightly belongs to God and not us. But if we don’t have as much zeal for the temple of God as the Old Testament people had, then the Lord will accept and bless even seven or five percent or any other amount offered with a pure heart. We must begin somewhere!