First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush are to jointly mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks at the site where the fourth hijacked plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Obama and her predecessor will be the keynote speakers at a ceremony near Shanksville where the heroic acts of the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 are to be enshrined in a permanent memorial. "We are deeply honored to welcome First Lady Michelle Obama, Mrs. Laura Bush and all of our guests to this important event," said Neil Mulholland, head of the National Park Foundation, which is behind the memorial. "Their show of support honors the lives and memories of these 40 heroes and everyone we lost on September 11, and serves as a valuable reminder of how important this memorial is to preserve and share their story." The 33 passengers and seven crew on Flight 93 wrote themselves into American lore when they mounted an assault against the four Al-Qaeda hijackers that had taken over the plane. They had learnt of the unfolding strikes via cell phone calls and were caught on a flight recorder trying to break into the cockpit, prompting its suicide pilot to send the Boeing 757 into a fatal dive. Flight 93 plowed into a field outside Shanksville, killing all on board. The plane came down less than 20 minutes flying time from Washington, its presumed target either the US Capitol or the White House. At the time, the crash was overshadowed by horrifying scenes at New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, turned into infernos by fuel-laden airliners steered on suicide missions by Al-Qaeda hijackers. The September 11 terror strikes were the most devastating on US soil, costing almost 3,000 lives. Obama and Bush will be joined at the ceremony at the future site of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, a statement said. "Fundraising is currently under way to complete the memorial which is under construction and set for dedication on September 11, 2011," said the statement from the National Park Foundation.
II. KATHIMERINI - Secretary Clinton pushes for Cyprus deal
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is tomorrow expected to appeal to Cypriots from the diaspora to support the “tough decisions” necessary for a solution to the Cyprus problem, Kathimerini’s Cyprus edition has learned. On Saturday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou telephoned Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias to brief him on his phone conversation with Clinton, which reportedly focused on the Cyprus issue. Clinton is due in Nicosia tomorrow to attend a conference of the World Federation of Overseas Cypriots, where she is expected to press Greek Cypriots to back United Nations-mediated peace talks. According to sources, Clinton said she backs a “bizonal, bicommunal” solution. She added that Washington “remains committed to ending the island’s division” but stressed that a solution was in the hands of Cypriot leaders. “The leaders of both communities must remain focused during these complex negotiations,” she was quoted as saying.
III. CANADIANPRESS - Lebanese ship hoping to break Gaza blockade postpones trip after Cyprus refuses entry
The organizers of a Lebanese ship hoping to break Israel's Gaza blockade say they have postponed the trip after Cyprus refused the vessel entry. The ship — the Mariam — cannot travel directly to Gaza because Lebanon is technically at war with Israel, forcing the boat to pass through a third country before heading to the Palestinian territory. Organizers said Sunday they are in contact with Greek authorities to allow the ship to dock there before proceeding to Gaza. They did not give a new departure date. The ship will carry aid and activists, organizers say. Israel has urged Lebanon to prevent the vessel from sailing to Gaza. The Lebanese expedition comes after Israeli commandos boarded a flotilla of Gaza-bound ships on May 31, killing nine activists.
IV. JPOST - Iran unveils missile-launching boats
Iran began mass production on two missile-launching assault boats to patrol the country's coastline and shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Monday. IRNA said that the Zolfaqar missile-launching vessel can be used for patrol as well as attack operations, having a "high destructive power." The beginning of production came as part of Iran's "government week," in which the Islamic Republic traditionally unveils its most recent technological advancements. On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad introduced an unmanned drone bomber which he dubbed the "ambassador of death." Speaking to a group of officials Ahmadinejad said, "The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship." The 4-meter long unmanned plane, dubbed as Karrar or striker, was inaugurated by Ahmadinejad on Sunday - the national day for the country's defense industry- in a ceremony aired live on state TV. The goal of the aircraft is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the jet is for deterrence and defensive purposes. The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation." Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming. "The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you — the West — that all options are on the table."
Slovakia's Foreign Minister Mikulaš Dzurinda said that his country is against recognizing Kosovo. He also stressed that the "unilateral secessions is not in the interest of Europe... If Serbs now feel cheated, I can understand that," Dzurinda told Austrian daily Die Presse, recalling that UN SC Resolution 1244, that ended the 1999 war over the province, envisages only a substantial autonomy for Kosovo. Commenting on a statement that Slovakia supported NATO's 1999 attack on Serbia, the Slovak minister said that he "strongly supported offering Slovakia's air space to NATO because he was convinced at the time that Slobodan Milošević's ethnic cleansing was a very bad thing". Durinda said that he was still convinced that the decision was right. "But with the same devotion to the values and principles I now believe that the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo without Serbia's consent or consideration is unfair," said Dzurinda, whose country is one of five EU member-states that have not recognized the Kosovo Albanian UDI.
VI. RIANOVOSTI - Russia no longer "security threat" to Turkey
Turkey will strike four countries, including Russia, from its list of external security threats in a bid to revise the country's national security strategy, national media reported on Monday. The new national security strategy, the draft of which is to be considered at a National Security Council meeting in October, excludes Russia, Greece, Iran and Iraq from the so-called Red Book - a national security policy document - as "principal external threats," the Milliyet daily said. Turkey regards international terrorism and fundamentalism as its main external threats. Ankara has been closely cooperating with the four former "security threats" in recent years and now regards them as its new partners. Turkey's relations with Russia have greatly improved since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Party of Justice and Development came to power in 2002. The draft strategy highlights close bilateral economic cooperation with Russia, good potential in trade and energy, and "a shared vision of stability in the Caucasus."
VII. PRAVMIR - Pearls to the Pigs and Communion to Dogs
When I was a kid I had a pet, a cat, and loved it dearly. It slept with me every night and in my teenage years felt at times as my only true friend. But there was no moment during the time we had together, that I confused my pet pal with a true human friend; it remained a cat the entire time. There seems to be however a lot of confusion nowadays about animals and their role in our lives. People treat their animals as family, take them to beauty salons and spas, leave them fortunes in their wills and expect to be joined by them in heaven. Just when I thought I heard it all I just stumbled on a recent news story where an Anglican minister went as far as giving communion to a dog. "It was a simple church act of reaching out to a new congregation member and his pet", the "she" minister swiftly responded to the harsh criticism surrounding her acts. Some may be asking what is the big fuss? The evolutionists might say: as the dogs, after all, we all come from animals; we are all products of the same evolutionary process. Why denying Communion to the dogs, aren't they also called to be saved? What is so distinctive about humans that they get all the benefits? Man is no more unique than the other animals, it is just the refined product of a distillation process that started by chance and eventually led where we are today. As shocking as this recent story may be, the problem of equating people with animals is not new. Even St. Gregory of Nazianz was facing some of the same controversy in the 4th century: "Men say: man is a microcosmos - and they say this thinking they elevate human nature with this grandiose title, but they did not realize that actually they have honored man with the characteristics of the mosquito and the mouse" In the quest to prove that man comes from animals, man is actually diminished to the level of a marginally more advanced living creature and nothing else, having very little to distinguish him from his "close relatives" that still dangle from one tree branch to the other. By reducing man to his animal body, man is actually abridged to matter and any spark of spirituality is completely denied to him. Man becomes an animal with the illusion of grandeur. But, according to Vladimir Lossky "Human perfection does not consist in what makes him resemble with all creation, but in what sets him apart from the created order and makes him resemble his Creator" Man was created differently than the other forms of life. God created the world by a simple "let there be..." but for man He decided to fashion him in a distinctive manner. "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (Gen 1:26). The resemblance with God that makes man different than animals is the rational origin of his soul. "Animals act on impulse (they have urges) but in man there is also "logic"; it is the Grace of God which comes and establishes itself "logically" upon the soul", says Saint Maximus the Confessor. Animals do not possess rationality and have no free will. They possess however, through their instincts and the spirit of life planted in them, a certain basic understanding of the world, enough for them to never fail in recognizing God and serving His will. This is why Christ did not specifically minister to animals, not because they were unworthy, or because He didn't care about them, but because the creation already knew Him and obeyed him as God. "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know." (Isaiah 1:3). The icon of Nativity shows this clearly by depicting the animals as the first witnesses of the Incarnation. On the other hand man, misusing his God given rationality and betraying his freedom of choice, in his disobedience, has forgotten Who the Master is and has fallen into sin. Because of man and his sin the entire creation has been turned upside down and exists in the corrupted state we see today. Man used to be at peace with all creation; Adam named all the animals and the animals recognized him and did not harm him. (Gen 2:20) But when through sin division was brought in the world animals ceased to recognize man and the entire nature turned against man and against each other. (Gen 3:12-19, Gen 6:12) The current condition of the world is different that what it was in paradise and different than how it will be in the Kingdom of heavens. The cosmos can and will be redeemed and man is its intercessor: "the creation itself [...] will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Rom 8:18-22). We see glimpses of this new order and of the renewed relationship between man and animals in the lives of the saints were we encounter a raven feeding the prophet Elias in the wilderness, lions living with the desert dwellers like St. Paul of Thebes or St. Mary of Egypt, a bear befriending St. Seraphim and so many other examples. This was foretold in the prophecy of Isaiah "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11:6) These saints have reached again in Christ the state that Adam had in paradise, when man was in harmony with the entire creation giving us all a pre-taste of the kingdom to come. But this harmony does not mean that we can reduce man to the level of an animal nor we can elevate an animal to the level of man. Each have their distinct role in God's providence and they cannot be confused. "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." (1Cor 15:39-40). Clearly man was given a distinctive role in creation. Man is the only created being that resembles both the heavens and the earth. Man is lifted to the image of God by his rational soul while his animal body caries the weight of the clay. Thus, by the will of God man is, without overextending his already bloated hubris, the central piece of the created world and by fulfilling his divine purpose he redeems the entire cosmos with him. "All things", argues St. Maximos the Confessor, " which have been created by God, in their diverse natures, are brought together in man as in a melting-pot, and form in him one unique perfection- a harmony composed of many different notes.'" Christ came to redeem man so man can be united with God and through man the whole creation to be made part of this union. Man is called to unite creation with the Creator and the entire nature supports him in His endeavor. This is the proper order of things that man cannot change but can freely choose to respect and use for the accomplishment of his divine potential.