Georgia must do "more than the bare minimum" to provide housing, jobs and health care for more than 200,000 people driven from their homes by war over the past two decades, Amnesty International said on Thursday. In a report two years after Georgia's five-day war with Russia over rebel South Ossetia, the U.K.-based rights watchdog said they suffered unemployment and exclusion from society. Many of those displaced by wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s continue to live in "dire conditions", the report said, with some 42 percent still housed in kindergartens, hospitals, hotels and barracks. "Displaced people need more than just roofs over their heads," said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia Programme Director. "They need the government to ensure employment, access to health care and benefits. They also need to be consulted and be able to make the choices affecting their lives." Pro-Russian South Ossetia and Abkhazia threw off Georgian rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. In August 2008, more than 100,000 people on both sides were displaced when Russia crushed a Georgian assault on separatist South Ossetia. Some 26,000 Georgians are unable to return.
The UN Security Council late Tuesday demonstrated deep divisions over Kosovo independence, declared by majority ethnic Albanians two years ago. The Council for the first time discussed the situation in Kosovo, after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last month that the declaration of independence wasn’t “contrary to international law”. Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic argued that the ICJ stopped short of saying the declaration was in harmony with the international and that Kosovo ethnic Albanians had the right to secession. “Never in the history of the UN had a country achieved statehood by unilateral secession from a state which hasn’t agreed to it,” Jeremic said. “I hope it won’t happen now for the first time,” he added. Serbia opposes Kosovo independence and has asked for a non-binding opinion of the ICJ on the legality of the move. But Jeremic and his Kosovo counterpart Skender Hiseni interpreted ICJ ruling each in his own way. Hiseni told the Council that ICJ ruling was clearly in favour of independence and said in was irreversible. “It is high time that Serbia starts respecting the (ICJ) opinion which she demanded herself,” Hiseni said. Similarly, ambassadors of western countries which have recognized Kosovo argued that the ICJ ruling “decisively confirmed” that Kosovo independence wasn’t contrary to international law. US ambassador Rosemary di Carlo, deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, called on the countries which haven’t recognized Kosovo to do so. But Serbia’s allies Russia and China, along with Brazil and Gabon, argued that Serbian territorial integrity should be respected. In a report to the security council secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said that the situation in Kosovo was stable, but politically delicate and marked by sporadic inter-ethnic incidents. He said that “the overall security situation in Kosovo remained relatively calm, but incidents persisted... The situation in Kosovo has remained relatively stable, although the potential for volatility and instability, especially in northern Kosovo, cannot be underestimated... The absence of significant progress in reconciliation between the communities, coupled with economic difficulties, continues to present a challenge and to foster the risk of unrest,” Ban concluded.
A group of former CIA and military officials have written to President Obama to say they believe Israel is preparing to attack Iran this month. The group explained that Israel wants to launch a war suddenly, and make it politically untenable for Obama to do anything other than offer full US military support. Michel Chossudovsky from the Canadian Centre for Research on Globalization thinks that, in reality, Israel would need Washington's backing first. “It is technically impossible, from a military standpoint, for Israel to actually launch a war on Iran without the green light from the US. This is not strictly an Israeli military project. The US from the mid-1990s in fact has indicated Iran as a possible target,” Chossudovsky evaluated. He acknowledged that the joint program of the US, NATO and Israel to attack Iran was formed sometime in 2004 at the time of invasion in Iraq. Chossudovsky believes that the threats are real and implications are far reaching. “If that war were launched within the next few months, a whole region would flare up from the Eastern Mediterranean right through to the Chinese border.” According to Mordechai Kedar from Israeli Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Israel will never attack Iran by itself for a number of reasons. “First of all, it is very far away from us. We have to refuel the planes above the hostile states – like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan – which we do not have relations with, so it is very complicated to do it. Secondly, the Israel air forces are rather small in comparison to the width of Iran and the numbers of targets which we should deal with in Iran,” he said. “If there is something worldwide that the United States and maybe Britain and other states also take part in – maybe, Israel will take part in this as well. But Israel by itself, I think, will never attack Iran,” Kedar added.
The U.S. will study intelligence data and information from open sources to gain an understanding into controversial media reports about an assassination attempt on the Iranian president, the Department of State said. "We will use the sources that are available to us to best understand what happened. And that will include intelligence sources as well as open sources," a State Department spokesman told a daily press briefing. "We're still evaluating based on the information that we have. We haven't arrived at a judgment as to what happened," Philip Crowley said. Regional media reported on Wednesday that a hand grenade was thrown at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's convoy heading to the city of Hamedan. Unnamed sources said the bomb hit the part of the presidential convoy carrying journalists and some people were injured. The official news agency IRNA later reported that a firecracker was thrown.
V. FINANCIALMIRROR - Pucccini’s ‘La Boheme’ at Cyprus Pafos Aphrodite Festival
The annual Pafos Aphrodite Festival (PAF) gets underway for the 12th consecutive summer this year, with the performance of Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’ by the Opera of the Slovak National Theatre delivering a cultural treat for opera lovers. Performances will take place on 3rd, 4th and 5th September with the medieval castle of Pafos as a stunning backdrop. La Boheme is based on French Author Henry Murger’s literary work ‘Scenes de la vie de Boheme’, and consists of four acts. First performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896, La Boheme is set in 1830 Paris and follows four friends – the poet Rodolfo, the musician Schaunard, the philosopher Colline, and the painter Marcello who live carefree lives, despite their poverty. In this classic, tragic, yet sometimes comic tale, we see Rodolfo develop a relationship with his young neighbour, the frail Mimi. An outstanding line-up of talent will take to the stage to bring La Boheme to life this summer, with separate performers tackling the roles on different evenings. As well as attracting star talent from overseas, La Boheme will also feature talented local performers, like Cypriot soprano Stella Georgiou and performer Kyriakos Sophocleous. Performed in Italian, with supertitles in both English and Greek, the production will be conducted by Stefan Lano.
The attorney for the man charged with last year's deadly shooting rampage at Texas' Fort Hood Army post says his client, who is still on the military's payroll, can't find a bank willing to cash his checks. While Maj. Nidal Hasan sits in Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas, waiting for his next hearing in October, his lawyer, John Galligan, has been shopping around to banks trying to find a financial institution willing to take on his client as a customer. "Various banks have refused, without any specificity, to permit Hasan to open a checking account where he can have his military pay deposited," Galligan told ABC News. Hasan faces 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder stemming from the Nov. 5 shooting that fatally wounded 13 soldiers. If convicted, Hasan could face the death penalty. Hasan still is receiving payment from the U.S. military because, according to a spokesman, he is still a service member. "He is a major in the United States Army and will therefore be paid until he is no longer a major," said Lt. Col. Chris Garver. "So yes, he's still receiving payment." According to Army records, Hasan stands to receive a check for about $6,000 every month. He is also eligible for what the Army calls an "incentive pay" that could be as much as $15,000 annually. Hasan's lawyer said that his client was notified about a month ago that his longtime bank, Bank of America, was no longer interested in holding his money.
The recently discovered relics of St John the Baptist have been laid in state in Bulgaria’s Sozopol after a transfer processing which brought much excitement and euphoria in the Black Sea town. The relics, which include part of an arm bone, a skull bone, and a tooth, were found in a sealed marble reliquary in the St. John the Forerunner Church on the St. Ivan Island near Sozopol on July 28, 2010, by the team of archaeologists led by Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov. The procession led by the Bulgarian Orthodox Bishop of Sliven Yoanikiy brought the relics of St. John the Baptist from the St. Ivan Island to the St. George Church in the downtown where they were laid in state. Thus, the holy relics have been officially transferred from the archaeologists to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Thousands of Bulgarians as well as dozens of buses with foreign tourists – Germans, Russians, Poles, Czechs - having their vacations along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast have immediately arrived on a pilgrimage trips to pay their respects to the relics of St. John the Baptist. The samples from the reliquary and the bones are still to be tested by specialists have expressed their views that there is no doubt whatsoever that absolutely unique archaeological discovery consists of relics of St. John the Baptist. Experts have pointed out that at the time of the building of the St. Ivan the Forerunner Church – 4th century AD – the tradition was to build in relics of saints in the construction instead of to lay them in state for pilgrims, and there was no intentional falsifications of such holy items. The greatest argument supporting the thesis that the relics belong to St. John the Baptist is the “clue” found at 1.2 m from the reliquary. It consists of a small box bearing inscriptions that make it clear who and when brought the relics of St. John the Baptist to Sozopol. The inscriptions make it clear that a man name Thomas, “God’s servant brought a particle of St. John on the 24th.” Even though some of the end letters are missing, the inscription in Greek makes it clear that the date refers to the birthday of St. John the Baptist, June 24. The use of genetive case in the inscription leaves no doubt that the relics belonged to one of the founders of Christianity. “It is important to understand one thing – this is the first time ever in the world archaeological practice that relics of St. John are found together with an inscription which just literally nails the conclusion and leaves no doubts. There are no speculations here,” said the man who made the unique discovery, archaeologist Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov. “I think that this is the discovery of the year, not just in the Bulgarian archaeology but also in the European archaeology. It is hard to speak of the symbols of early Christianity but Apolonia (i.e. the Greek name of Sozopol) and the St. Ivan Island were one of the earliest places where Christians settled as they were persecuted by the Roman authorities. Their heritage is connected with the entire Christian history,” explained the Director of the Burgas Regional History Museum Tsonya Drazheva who is also part of the archaeological team that found the relics of St. John. The relics of St. John the Baptist will lay in state in the St. George Church in Sozopol until the completion of the repairs of the larger St. Cyril and St. Methodius Church nearby. Once the larger church is completed, the relics of St. John will be transferred there, together with two other holy items already kept in Sozopol – the a piece of the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ donated to the town by the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the National History Museum, and relics of St. Andrew, which were donated to the town by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I during his visit to Sozopol last month.