I. BIANET - Turkey in Free Fall, World Press Freedom Index
Reporters without Borders (RSF) published their World Press Freedom Index on Wednesday (20 October). Turkey followed last year's tendency and fell back another 16 places to the 138th rank. With a total of 178 countries on the list, Turkey is stands between Singapore and Ethiopia. [Occupied] northern Cyprus performed much better in the 61st position. Under the heading "Central Asia, Turkey and the Ukraine cause concern, while the European model weakens" the RSF issued a referring press release. "These declines can be explained, as far as Turkey is concerned, by the frenzied proliferation of lawsuits, incarcerations, and court sentencing targeting journalists" it was said in the announcement. "These declines can be explained, as far as Turkey is concerned, by the frenzied proliferation of lawsuits, incarcerations, and court sentencing targeting journalists" it read in the announcement. Turkey already fell back 20 places in last year's ranking of a total of 175 countries. It was in the 122th position slightly ahead of Venezuela and sharing the place with the Philippines. In 2008, the country held the 102nd rank together with Armenia among a total of 173 countries. In 2007, Turkey was one place ahead on rank 101 among 163 countries. The World Press Freedom Index 2010 is the ninth such ranking published by RSF. The index is lead by Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland sharing the top position. Trailing behind the rest of the countries are Myanmar (174), Iran (175), North Korea (176), Turkmenistan (177) and Eritrea (178). To read the complete list of 178 on the Press Freedom Index 2010, please click here.
II. REUTERS - Greek PM to discuss overflights with Turkish PM
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will raise concerns over Turkish fighter jet overflights when he meets his Turkish counterpart on Friday. The NATO allies came to the brink of war as recently as 1996 over a deserted Aegean islet. Tensions have since eased and bilateral ties have improved considerably over the past decade. But little progress has been made on long-running territorial disputes and their fighter jets still stage mock dog fights in disputed airspace. "On a daily basis we have a violation of the Greek airspace, this has not changed," Dimitris Droutsas told Reuters ahead of Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Athens. "We also have Turkish vessels getting into the Aegean, vessels from the Turkish navy, which is something that provokes Greece and disturbs its public opinion." "We are trying to cooperate, to find more and more areas of common interest where we can deepen our cooperation because we think by this we can create the necessary atmosphere of mutual trust to tackle the more difficult questions," Droutsas said. "But let's have no illusions, the problems, the very annoying activity by Turkey vis-a-vis Greece still exist and it exists on an almost daily basis," he said. Erdogan is coming to Athens to attend a conference on climate change. Athens, which backs Ankara's European Union accession provided it meets its obligations, has made clear an improvement in relations will hinge on Turkey showing goodwill in the Aegean and in efforts to reunite the divided island of Cyprus.
III. SRBIJA - Serbian soldiers in UN peace mission in Cyprus
The Ministry of Defence stated that seven Serbian soldiers left today for Cyprus to participate in a UN peacekeeping mission there. The statement adds that they will be stationed at the mission’s headquarters and be tasked with monitoring the Buffer Zone. Deputy Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Mladen Cirkovic declared that the Serbian Army is giving its contribution to the preservation of global security and stability. Head of the Centre for Peacekeeping Operations Colonel Jelesije Radivojevic underlined that along with missions in Chad, the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Congo, the mission in Cyprus is a continuation of the engagement of the finest Serbian soldiers abroad. This is the first mission in almost four decades for which Serbian soldiers will depart in an Army airplane, carrying their own equipment and light weaponry, he observed. Furthermore, this is the first time the Serbian Army has dispatched a professional, contracted soldier to a peace mission, namely a corporal who has been in active service for eight years, he added. Serbian peacekeepers will take part in a UN peace mission on the territory of Europe for the first time as part of the Hungarian–Slovak contingent. The peacekeeping mission on Cyprus began with a UN Security Council Resolution in 1964.
IV. RIANOVOSTI - Merkel welcomes Medvedev's decision to attend NATO summit
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has welcomed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to participate in the forthcoming NATO summit in Lisbon. Russian president agreed on Tuesday to attend the NATO summit in Lisbon on November 19 and 20. "We want to outline in Lisbon how to further develop relations between Russia and NATO," Merkel told journalists after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Moscow hopes the Russian-NATO Council summit in Lisbon will clear up the situation around NATO's European missile defense plan, Russia's envoy to the military alliance Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday. Rasmussen has repeatedly said that NATO wants Russia to be part of the missile shield, but Russia said a serious assessment of missile risks should be carried out before starting on the project. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he has discussed the problem with Rasmussen. "I believe we will agree (in Lisbon) on a treaty which will satisfy everybody," the French president said.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday spoke of Netanyahu also discussed the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians at the event. "We left Gaza and the they fired upon us 12,000 rockets. Therefore, my conclusions are: First, that are partners must recognize Israel as the Jewish national home and that they themselves are ready for peace. Second, the only peace that will hold is a peace that is possible to defend. We must achieve security arrangements in the peace agreement in order that will it will be sustainable.the threat Iran posed towards Israel in a speech to the Conference on the Future of the Jewish People organized by the Jewish People Policy Institute at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. "We have a state in the East that expending every effort to develop nuclear weapons in order to destroy us," said Netanyahu. He continued during his speech to say, "Today, the influence [of the Islamic Regime] is found in Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, South America and Africa. This is what it has achieved without nuclear weapons, imagine for yourselves what it would do if it had nuclear weapons." "The international community must ensure that this type of weapon does not fall into Iranian hands," Netanyahu added.
Election night in November could be a long one—and could be followed by long days and even weeks of uncertainty, a top Republican pollster warms. Bill McIinturff, co-director of The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, said key Senate elections in Nevada, California and Washington now look so close that it may not be possible to declare winners in all three on Nov. 2, the date of the mid-term elections. The need to tally absentee ballots, and possible recounts, could delay the final results for one or more of those races, Mr. McInturff said. He spoke on WSJ.com's "Big Interview" show, along with Democratic pollster Peter Hart, his partner in directing the Journal/NBC News poll. Given how close the fight for control of the Senate will be, a delay in calling one or more of the three tight Western races could leave the question of which party is in charge there hanging unanswered. Republicans would have to make a net gain of 10 seats in the Senate to win control, a number that they could reach only by winning most of the closest races where Democratic incumbents are fighting for re-election. In all three of the big Western states Mr. McInturff cited, Democratic incumbents—Patty Murray in Washington, Barbara Boxer in California and Harry Reid in Nevada—are in tough fights. For his part, Mr. Hart predicted Democrats will keep control of the Senate. But he also warned that, in general, a "hurricane" is heading toward Democrats on Election Day, and that there is little they can do to avert it at this stage of the campaign. The two pollsters agreed, though, that President Barack Obama, who is traversing the country to raise money and stump for Democrats in the campaign's closing days, remains the Democrats' best weapon in the stretch run. The president's job-approval rating stands at 47% in the latest Journal/NBC News poll. That's up a bit from its low point last summer, and roughly comparable to where other recent presidents have been at this point in their first term. More important, Mr. McInturff noted, President Obama has a particular ability to fire up the Democratic base in those key Senate battleground states of Washington, California and Nevada, which is why he is hitting all three this week.
VII. SLTRIB - Orthodox leaders: Time for unity has come
To Bishop Jonah and Archbishop Nathaniel, top leaders in the Orthodox Church in America, the unity of all U.S. wings of Eastern Orthodoxy is on the horizon. In fact, a single church is likely to come sooner than anyone expected, the two said during a Salt Lake City visit last week. “We have always been hopeful,” said Nathaniel, archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America and a member of the OCA’s synod of bishops. “But we are a little surprised that it is moving as quickly as it is.” The two holy men in black were in Utah for the 23rd annual meeting of Orthodox Christian Laity, a group committed to unite the Russian, Greek, Romanian, Serbian and other Orthodox believers into a single church, led by one bishop. Currently, each U.S. ethnic church looks to its country of origin and the patriarchs there as its spiritual head rather than to the country where they live. That is not the way the rest of the world does it. “Our dogma, sacraments and theology are all the same, only the administration is different” Nathaniel said. “It is our fervent desire for administrative unity.” They feel the time for worshipping together has arrived. “All the Old World patriarchs now have endorsed [the idea of a single church],” said Jonah, OCA metropolitan of all America and Canada. “They told the Americans, ‘It’s up to you to figure out how to do it.’” So last year, America’s 66 Eastern Orthodox bishops met to create committees that will hammer out a plan, which they hope to present to the entire church at a “Great Council” of all Orthodox bishops in Istanbul in 2013. While there may always be ethnic parishes, Nathaniel said, eventually there won’t be any ethnic dioceses or bishops. Every diocese could have a variety of churches, answering to the same bishop. And all would look to an American patriarch, who would oversee the multicultural, multi-language, multi-ethnic body. For Jonah and Nathaniel, the move to unify is urgent. Neither was born in the faith, but rather converted as adults. Both are passionate about their faith. Jonah was reared an Episcopalian, but discovered the historic faith in 1978 while studying at the University of California at San Diego. “I fell in love with the tradition and liturgy and integrated nature of Orthodoxy,” Jonah said. After college, Jonah studied at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York. After earning a master of divinity degree in 1985 and a master of theology in dogmatics in 1988, Jonah spent time in Russia, where he became a tonsured monk. He then returned to California and helped found a monastery there, becoming its first abbot. Later, he was named the bishop of Fort Worth, Texas. Two years ago, Jonah was elected archbishop of Washington and New York and metropolitan of All America and Canada by his fellow bishops. Nathaniel, too, started out in another faith — the Romanian-Greek Catholic Church. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1966, but, a year later, moved into Orthodoxy. After that, he ministered in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio before being named ruling hierarch of The Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America in 1984. A decade later, he was elevated to archbishop. Today, about 80 percent of OCA bishops are converts as are 70 percent of the priests and 50 percent of the members. “Missionary outreach is America’s core,” Jonah said. “It is the essence of who we are.”