Estonia has refused to take in prisoners from Guantanamo detention center, citing legal reasons. The Baltic country says it supports the European Union’s policy regarding accepting inmates. However, the country’s Foreign Minister, Urmas Paet, told parliament on Monday that current legislation makes it impossible for Tallinn to receive any detainees, according to Interfax news agency. The US asked EU countries to find a place for Guantanamo inmates in cases where there is not enough evidence for indictment, but where they still cannot return to their own countries. Speaking in parliament, Paet confirmed that Estonia supported closing the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But officials in Tallinn have decided that hosting “individuals with such backgrounds” would breach the country’s laws. In Estonia, residence permits cannot be granted for people who have taken part in criminal or terrorist groups, or those who have been trained to form armed gangs. The same applies to servicemen of other country’s armed forces. Paet made it clear that the US understood the country’s position and that Washington had not tried to “exert pressure” and make Tallinn amend its legislation. There had been earlier reports that Estonia and its Baltic neighbor Latvia were considering the possibility of taking in Guantanamo prisoners. On Tuesday, the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo detainee begins in New York. Terror suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is accused of plotting to blow up the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will start her visit to Serbia on Tuesday afternoon. Clinton will arrive here from Bosnia, for meetings with top state officials, that are expected to focus on Serbia's EU integration and the planned dialogue between Belgrade and Priština. Clinton will first meet with President Boris Tadić, it has been announced, and is expected to relay strong support for Serbia's Euro-Atlantic integration. She will also meet with Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković. According to the prime minister's cabinet, the meeting will be attended by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for EU Integration Božidar Đelić, Interior Minister Ivica Dačić and Economy Minister Mlađan Dinkić. Clinton will also meet her Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremić and Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac during the day. The visit also comes as the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština is expected to start in order to find solution to issues which, according to Clinton, are not easy to solve. Ahead of her Balkan tour the U.S. secretary of state said that her country and the EU were ready to help and facilitate but that it was up to the leaders and peoples to reach agreement and find a solution to their future.
III. ESPN - "Once Brothers" with Vlade Divac debuts Tuesday
Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac were friends who grew up sharing the common bond of basketball. Together, they lifted the Yugoslavian National team to unimaginable heights. After conquering Europe, they both went to America where they became the first two foreign players to attain NBA stardom. But with the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991, Yugoslavia split up. A war broke out between Petrovic's Croatia and Divac's Serbia. Long buried ethnic tensions surfaced. And these two men, once brothers, were now on opposite sides of a deadly civil war. As Petrovic and Divac continued to face each other on the basketball courts of the NBA, no words passed between the two. Then, on the fateful night of June 7, 1993, Drazen Petrovic was killed in an auto accident. "Once Brothers", debuting Tuesday, will tell the gripping tale of these two men, how circumstances beyond their control tore apart their friendship, and whether Divac has ever come to terms with the death of a friend before they had a chance to reconcile.
IV. ISRAELTODAY - Israeli FM to Europe: Mind your own business
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman hosted his Spanish and French counterparts on Sunday, and expressed to his guests deep disappointment with Europe’s double standards toward Israel. Lieberman is known to not hold his tongue when he has a problem with the international community, but polls in Israel consistently show that he genuinely speaks for a majority of Israelis. And he did not hold back in the least when he told French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos that Europe needs to mind its own business, and stop pressuring Israel to meet dangerous conditions for a phony peace. “I don’t expect you to solve the problems of the world, but I certainly expect that before you come here to teach us how to solve conflicts, you will deal with the problems in Europe and solve those conflicts,” said Lieberman. The Israeli explained that while Europe thinks it knows best what Israel must do for peace and security, in its own backyard the Cyprus, Serbia-Kosovo and Caucasus conflicts continue to rage. Succeed in ending those conflict, said Lieberman, and “we will listen to your advice.” Lieberman suggested that European involvement in the Israeli-Arab conflict is less about brokering peace, and more about securing perceived European interests. “In 1938, the European community decided to appease Hitler instead of supporting Czechoslovakia and sacrificed them [sic] without gaining anything,” Lieberman said. “We will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010. We will ensure the security of Israel.” And it’s not only Europe that is guilty of this, Lieberman noted. He said it appears as if the entire international community is trying to make up for its peace failures everywhere else by forcing an imprudent deal down Israel’s throat. “What about the struggle in Somalia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Sudan?” he asked. “Instead of talking now with the Arab League about the future of a referendum in Sudan, or discussing the explosive situation in Iraq in 2012, the international community is applying great pressure on Israel.” The worst part, said Lieberman, is that the international community knows exactly where these ill-fated peace efforts are heading - toward increased violence and eventually another Arab Muslim invasion of Israel. Historically, international efforts to broker peace in the Middle East by pressuring Israel to surrender land have only resulted in the rise of Muslim extremists like Hamas and an increase in violence.
V. PRESSASSOCIATION - Northern Cyprus flights ban upheld
A Turkish airline has lost its bid in the Court of Appeal to overturn the ban on flights from the UK to Turkish-held northern Cyprus. Kibris Turk Hava Yollari (KTHY) and its UK tour operator, CTA Holidays Limited, argued that the ban unfairly restricted Turkish Cypriots and their companies wishing to travel and conduct business with the EU and the rest of the world. Currently, flights to northern Cyprus must land in Turkey first, which is the only country in the world that recognises the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC).
VI. KATHIMERINI - FYROMacedonia move ticks off Athens
Diplomats in Athens were vexed yesterday by the latest proposal by Antonio Milososki, foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), according to which FYROM should be allowed to begin negotiations with officials in Brussels for accession to the European Union while bilateral talks aimed at solving a dispute over the Balkan country’s name continue in parallel. Milososki said that FYROM’s eventual accession to the EU would subsequently occur under the name agreed upon in ongoing talks with Greece. Government sources in Athens reacted by calling on Skopje to stop its “political maneuvers” and focus on United Nations-mediated talks aimed at breaking the name deadlock, noting that a settlement must be reached before accession talks can begin. Milososki’s comments came a few weeks before an anticipated progress report by the European Commission on FYROM’s prospects of accession to the bloc.
VII. INTERFAX - Metropolitan Hilarion’s interview to The Voice of Russia Radio
His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia was enthroned in early October. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, attended the ceremony on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church. Having returned home, he gave an interview to "The Voice of Russia". You have just returned from Kosovo. What are your impressions of the visit? My stay in Kosovo was very short this time, as I only took part in the enthronement of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia. However, I visited Kosovo a year ago and had an opportunity to get well acquainted with the life of this land. I have both positive and negative impressions. On the one hand, I saw remarkable monuments of the old Serbian culture and wonderful frescoes of the Decani and Gračanica monasteries. I saw people living there, performing their feat. On the other hand, I saw awful conditions in which they live, as the churches have been destroyed and local residents’ attitude to the Serbs and Orthodoxy is utterly negative. As a matter of fact, I saw the land that used to be a cradle of Serbian Orthodoxy, but has been lost for the Church. What is the attitude to the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian people in Serbia and in Kosovo? The attitude is very good. Everybody knows that Russia has supported Serbia Russian Orthodoxy supported Serbian Orthodoxy throughout centuries up to now. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia visited Serbia several times, and Patriarch Kirill, when he was metropolitan also often visited Serbia and Kosovo. Today many people are worried about Orthodox holy sites in Kosovo, a part of which had been lost forever during recent military conflicts. Is the Russian Orthodox Church prepared to help restore these word famous monuments and in what way? First of all, we highly appreciate a decision of the Russian state to give UNESCO money to restore the churches in Kosovo. Besides, the Russian Orthodox Church will do what she can for the Orthodox living in Kosovo, monks and nuns in particular. We talked with representatives of the Serbian Church; they wish to welcome our monks and nuns, let it be at least on the rotation method, for a year, or two, or three years, thus supporting their monasteries and convents. For instance, the Patriarchate of Peć, where the enthronement of the Patriarch took place, is a convent at present. Its hegumeness is ninety years old, and there are only a few sisters there. Certainly, our monasteries and convents could help to keep monasteries and convents in Kosovo in a proper state. I believe that the Russian Orthodox Church, having over eight hundred monasteries and convents could render fraternal support to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo. Is there any special programme in the Russian Church on the pilgrimage of laymen to the holy sites in Kosovo? Thus not only monks, but also all believers could come there and do what they can to help. The believers visit holy sites in Kosovo. I was happy to see several hundred pilgrims from Serbia and other countries at the enthronement of the Serbian Patriarch. It should be noted that many Russian Christians visit these holy sites, though it is rather difficult and even dangerous to do under the present circumstances. Some time should pass before the inhabitants of Kosovo begin to look at the recent events calmly. Even now, pilgrims traveling by bus are being attacked; stones are being thrown at them. This tension remains; it is heading in the air. What part does world Orthodoxy play, how can it help preserve the holy sites in Kosovo and also stabilize peace in the Balkans? I believe that all Orthodox Church should close their ranks and, together with the Serbian Church, elaborate a programme of aid to the monasteries and holy places in Kosovo. I can say that we in the Russian Orthodox Church are considering this issue. Since visiting Kosovo for the first time, I have been thinking about the necessity of a full-scale relief programme. A tendency for improving relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics has been taking shape recently. Could it influence the well being in the Balkans, where the followers of these Christian confessions have been living side by side for centuries? I think that the improvement of relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics would tell positively on the life in all countries where they live side by side. We discuss certain theological and theoretical problems and in our dialogue with the Catholics, but we should not forget about the real life of people and about our calling to help them. In this regard, any improvement of inter-confessional relations would bring good to our believers. You travel much representing the Russian Orthodox Church. What do you think about the attitude of people abroad to Orthodoxy and is the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church really heard? As to the influence in the Western world, I think that the Russian Orthodox Church should not be compared with the Catholic Church. However, we do not have problems as it has at present, and therefore we are not sharply criticized in the Western mass media. Any time the Russian Orthodox Church vigorously states her position, her voice is heard throughout the world. It is difficult to tell how far they understand us, yet I think that we do not work for nothing, that the dialogue with our brothers, including non-Orthodox, is carried not in vain.