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Monday, January 31, 2011

Turkey,ECHR violations;Greece-Egypt migrants;Cyprus,Palestine;Kosovo criminality;Italy,terrorists;Russia-NATO;Hunger,Super Bowl Sunday



Turkey ranks first among the number of countries convicted for rights violations by the European Court of Human Rights in 2010. Russia is on second position of the list of 47 countries. Main reasons for Turkey's convictions were the fairness or the length of trials. Among 47 countries under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, Turkey ranks at the top position regarding the number of convictions in 2010. The court decided 278 files of applicants from Turkey. 228 of these cases comprised violations of at least one article of the European Convention on Human Rights, the court announced. Only nine files concerning Turkey did not include any violation of rights as ruled by the ECHR. Turkey is followed by Russia (217 judgments), Romania (143) and the Ukraine (109). At the same time, the work load of the ECHR has considerably increased according to the court's statement. "Approximately 139,650 applications were pending before a judicial formation on 1 January 2011. More than half of these applications had been lodged against one of four countries: Russia, Turkey, Romania or Ukraine", the court announced. 10.9 percent of all applications come from Turkey. In 2010, the ECHR considered a total of 41,000 applications. 1,499 decisions came out of 2,607 applications. 37 percent of all decisions made by the Strasbourg court were related to violations of the right to a fair trial. Decisions regarding Turkey were mostly based on violations in aspect to the fairness and the length of trials.


Citizens’ Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis chaired a meeting of security chiefs on Monday morning as Greece prepares for a possible influx of immigrants from Egypt and other North African countries. The chiefs of police, coast guard and national intelligence attended the meeting, which was aimed at developing a strategy for dealing with a possible spike in the number of undocumented immigrants trying to enter Greece after anti-government protest in Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. The meeting is also likely to have been driven by the government’s concern that it should look proactive on the issue of illegal immigration after apparently being caught out by a protest last week by more than 230 immigrants at Athens University’s Law School. The hunger-striking immigrants are now housed in another building in central Athens and in tents in its courtyard. Campaigners have said that the building is too small to accommodate all the protesters and about 100 of them are having to sleep in tents.


The President of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias, on Sunday said that the decision of his country to recognize a Palestinian state in 1988 remains valid, according to an official statement. Speaking on the borders of the future Palestinian state, the president said Cyprus "is in line with the EU well known position that it will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, unless agreed by the two parties." The statement also said that the Cyprus government stresses the "utmost importance of the resumption of talks between the two parties as soon as possible for a solution of the Palestinian issue through negotiations." The statement contradicts earlier reports that Christofias sent a new declaration of recognition to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.


Former Dutch State Secretary for European Affairs Frans Timmermans warned the U.S. in late 2007 that Kosovo was "run by people who live off crime". This has emerged in a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by the Wikileaks whistleblowing website. "Timmermans was concerned about the future implications of the EU's outreach to Kosovo: Kosovo is run by people who live off crime...(they have) no other means to support themselves," Timmermans said, reported U.S. officials who met with him in The Hague. The meeting took place in November 2007, ahead of the February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence made by the province's ethnic Albanians. According to this, Timmermans "noted that Russia was creating havoc in the Balkans, and Kosovo will be a messy affair." He was also quoted as saying that the Russians "will react strongly, and the European reaction will be all over the place," once the proclamation has been made in Priština. The leaked cable comes as the reputation of Kosovo's Albanian leaders has been dealt a series of blows, including the human organ trafficking report put together by Council of Europe Special Rapporteur Dick Marty. Last week, the Guardian newspaper published what it said were leaked NATO documents, that named Kosovo Albanian Prime Minister and former KLA leader Hashim Thaci as one of the "biggest fish" in organized crime in Kosovo.


Three Moroccans, one a Muslim cleric, were arrested in Italy on suspicion of training recruits for international terrorism, Italian police said. The imam of Sellia Marina and his son were arrested at their home in Calabria Monday and the third person arrested is part of the Moroccan community of Lamezia Terme, ANSA reported. Authorities also searched the homes of nine other people, arresting one for possession of marijuana. The arrests stemmed from a "complex" investigation by security police and Italy's postal police, the report said. Investigators said the men used the Internet to receive and send "multimedia documents about arms and explosives training" and possessed software that "could be used to sabotage computer systems."


The creation of a joint Russia-NATO missile defense network will be a key issue on the agenda of the upcoming global security conference in Munich, a German diplomat said on Monday. Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate in the creation of the European missile defense system in Lisbon in November last year. The parties plan to formulate terms for missile defense cooperation by June 2011. "The creation of a joint missile defense network is important not only from a military standpoint but also because it helps to form political trust," Chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger said. Ischinger added that a new working group in the framework of the conference had been set up to focus on the issue of missile defense, which becomes paramount for future strategic arms reductions. The 47th Munich Security Conference, to be held February 4-6, will bring together senior figures from around the world to engage in an intensive debate on current and future security challenges. During the conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton could exchange ratification documents on the new Russian-U.S. strategic arms reduction treaty, putting the new arms deal into effect after it was ratified by the lawmakers of both countries. The treaty slashes the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads.


When the Green Bay Packers face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV on February 6, Orthodox Christians throughout the US will be tackling hunger in their parishes through the "Souper Bowl of Caring." The world is facing its worst hunger crisis in half a century, according to Bread for the World. An estimated 925 million people are hungry, including almost 16,000 children who die each day from hunger-related causes -- one child every five seconds. "On the field the game will come down to a battle between two historic franchises," said Constantine M. Triantafilou, executive director of International Orthodox Christian Charities [IOCC]. "But long after the winner is determined -- in small fields throughout Kosovo, Albania, the West Bank, Ethiopia, and elsewhere that IOCC serves -- the fight against hunger will continue through projects that help people to produce food in sustainable ways for their families." The "Souper Bowl of Caring" is observed each year on Super Bowl Sunday as a way to mobilize youth to fight hunger and poverty. Young people collect monetary and food donations in their parishes and then give them directly to charities of their choice. Started in a church in South Carolina, the Souper Bowl of Caring includes participants of all faiths. IOCC has been encouraging Orthodox Christian youth to participate in the service activity for the past thirteen years. Established in March 1992 as the official humanitarian organization of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, IOCC is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of churches and agencies engaged in development, humanitarian assistance and advocacy. More information on the "Souper Bowl of Caring" may be found on IOCC's website be clicking here.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Photos:Egypt riots;Cyprus-Greece-Israel,Gaza;Turkish migrants;Abkhazia refugees;EULEX,Kosovo probe;WWII echoes;Syrian,Greek Churches



Thousands of protesters stormed the streets in Egypt on Friday, marking the fourth day of riots against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. Encouraged by the anti-government protests in Tunisia, Egyptians protested against years of unemployment, increasing food prices, and government neglect of poverty. It is the largest demonstration of protests Egypt has seen in years. Scroll through to see scenes from the riots in Egypt...


Cyprus foreign minister says Israel has turned down a proposal to use the east Mediterranean island as a staging post to ship humanitarian aid to blockaded Gaza. Markos Kyprianou said the joint Cyprus-Greece proposal was not discussed with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki during talks in Nicosia on Friday. Under the European Union-backed initiative, ships would have used Cypriot ports to ferry aid directly to Gaza, some 240 miles (386 kilometres) away.


The European Commission on Thursday announced that it had struck a deal with Ankara foreseeing the repatriation of illegal migrants arriving in Greece via Turkey though this will only apply to Turkish immigrants at first. “The final adjustments to the draft European Union readmission agreement with Turkey were agreed and the negotiation has now come to its end,” European Home Affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said. In a written statement issued on Thursday, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras said he hoped “the agreement will be put into effect as soon as possible and help curb illegal immigration.” But the pact - to be rubber-stamped by EU interior ministers in Brussels on February 24 - does not satisfy Greece’s demand for the repatriation of all migrants arriving from Turkey. According to EU officials, the pact will apply immediately for Turkish illegal migrants but will only be extended to cover migrants from third countries, who entered Greece via Turkey, in four years from now.


The EU special representative for the South Caucasus has said he is "concerned" that Georgian refugees are not returning to their homes in the Kodori Valley in eastern Abkhazia. Peter Semneby was speaking during a meeting with Abkhazian Prime Minister Sergei Shamba in Sukhumi. He said Abkhazia should create conditions for the refugees to return. Up to 200 Svans (an ethnic minority related to the Georgians) have returned to their homes in the Kodori Valley since Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August 2008 over South Ossetia. Thousands of ethnic Georgians were displaced following the fighting. Shamba said however that the issue is Abkhazia's internal affair. "The government's policies are aimed at helping people who have already returned to adapt," he commented.


The rule of law mission to Kosovo, EULEX, has announced that it is has opened a preliminary investigation into the Kosovan organ-trafficking allegations. The claims were made in a report presented by Swiss senator Dick Marty last December, which was adopted by the Council of Europe on Tuesday. Marty’s report implicated high ranking members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the murder of Serbian and Kosovan Albanian prisoners and the selling of their organs. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is among the accused. In a statement on Friday, EULEX said that it took the allegations “very seriously”. “EULEX has the capacity, the expertise, the location and the jurisdiction to handle the judicial follow-up. We are ready, willing and able to assume that responsibility.” The European Union mission in Kosovo called on all relevant organisations and individuals, including Marty, to present their evidence and expressed confidence in its witness protection unit. Marty has called for an investigation to be carried out independently by someone from outside the region and expressed concerns about witness protection in Kosovo.


NATO-led forces have regained the momentum against rebels in Afghanistan but still face a tough fight, the alliance's top officer said Thursday, comparing the campaign to a turning point in World War II. Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola said "the tide has been reversed" in the fight against Taliban rebels and expressed confidence Afghan forces will be ready to take over security responsibility nationwide by 2014 as planned. However, warning of another "tough fight ahead in 2011," Di Paola drew a parallel with 1942, a tough year for Allies in World War II when Nazi troops continued to advance in Russia and their Japanese allies across Asia. But it was also in November that year that British forces defeated the Germans in the Battle of El Alamein, north Africa, seen as a turning point in the war. "Think of World War II: 1942, if you were an American you knew were in the worst moment of history, and still the tide had already changed," he argued. "There was a lot of fighting in '43, '44, but in '42 when the horizon was very bleak and the sky was very dark, the light was already coming in... What was happening in 1942, that's what's happening today in Afghanistan," he said... NATO aims to increase the number of Afghan security forces from 256,000 to 306,000 by October this year.


Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed on Tuesday said Syria has had a significant role in building the human civilization and adding to its prosperity. Al-Sayyed's remarks came during a meeting with Mar Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Patriarch of Antioch an All the East, Supreme Head of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church, and Ieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, at Mar Afram Monastery of the Assyrian Church. The Minister highlighted the importance of spreading the culture of dialogue and exchange of ideas and strengthening the concept of religious fraternity and its role in spreading peace, security and stability in the world. "What brings the Syrians together is their love for homeland and honest commitment and loyalty to its principles," said al-Sayyed, noting that this was further consolidated through the values and beliefs of Islam and Christianity. Patriarch Iwas, for his part, underscored the importance of the visit of Archbishop Ieronymos II in activating cooperation relations between the churches in Syria and Greece. Archbishop Ieronymos II, in turn, agreed with Patriarch Iwas on the significance of enhancing dialogue and sharing ideas between the churches in the two countries in a spirit of amity to serve the interests of their friendly peoples.


Thursday, January 27, 2011

Cyprus talks;Greece:Special Olympics;Holocaust Remembrance;Social roots terrorism;Pirates;Bird death solved;Orthodox-Catholic relations



United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said in Geneva on Wednesday that progress had been made in discussions aimed at rekindling the Cyprus reunification talks. "There has been progress since we last met in November," the UN secretary-general told journalists after a four-hour meeting with the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders in Switzerland. Ban said the meeting with President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish-Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu was "spirited" and "constructive." The two sides have stepped up their contacts since Ban warned after talks in New York last November that "serious differences" remain and suggested the UN might withdraw from its mediatory role if there was no sign of progress.


Despite the economic crisis which has hit Greece hard, Athens will be ready to host in June the best World Summer Special Olympics ever, said the Greek organizers on Wednesday, 150 days before the start of the Games. "In a bleak environment, we always need a rainbow. Our athletes will become this rainbow of joy and optimism for the world," said Joanna Despotopoulou, President of the Greek Organizing Committee of the Games, during a sponsors forum held in Athens.


International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been marked today in Serbia's capital city of Belgrade. Minister of Labor and Social Policy Rasim Ljajić, representatives of the City of Belgrade and members of the diplomatic corps and the Association of Jewish Communities in Serbia laid wreaths at a monument to the victims of the Holocaust at the grounds of the former German Nazi concentration camp Staro Sajmište, which the occupying army set up in Belgrade. Ljajić stated that dreadful crimes took place during the occupation of Serbia in the Second World War. “Staro Sajmište is one of the largest execution sites in Serbia where 6,320 Jews, mostly women and children, were killed from December 1941 to May 1942,” Ljajić said. He underlined that about 90 percent of Jews who lived in Serbia before 1941 did not survive World War Second. Ljajić said that over 130 Serbs have been presented with Righteous Among the Nations honorary title that the State of Israel awards to non-Jews who risked their lives during the holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. “Serbia is proud of its anti-fascist tradition and its contribution to the victory over fascism and Nazism in World War Second denying any possible revision of history or relativization of committed crimes,” Ljajić said. “Today, we express our deepest sympathy for the horrific suffering of six million Jews, who were brutally killed during the World War Second which is the greatest downfall in the history of mankind,” he said. The International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established by the UN General Assembly on November 1, 2005, to mark the day when the largest Nazi death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland) was liberated by Soviet troops.


The international community should unite to combat terrorism and its socio-economic roots, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. Medvedev arrived in Switzerland two days after a terrorist attack at Moscow's busiest airport which claimed the lives of 35 people and left over one hundred injured. "Unfortunately, no country today is secure against terrorism," said Medvedev who was forced to reduce his schedule in Davos to two events. "We should boost the joint fight against terrorism and make every effort to influence if not the ideology but the socio-economic roots of terrorism - poverty, illiteracy, orphanhood," he added. The president also said that the Domodedovo Airport attackers wanted to put Russia on its knees and take a defensive position. "But they were wrong. Russia realizes its place in the world, Russia realizes its responsibility to its citizens and the world community and will fulfill them," Medvedev said adding that this is the reason why he had arrived in Davos.


The U.S. and its allies should put more pressure on Somali pirates on shore, before they reach commercial ships off the Somali coast, a top Navy commander said Wednesday. Vice Adm. Mark Fox, who is commander of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Central Command fleet, warned that the pirates' growing use of larger, often commandeered ships, is a "game-changer" that allows them to go farther out to sea where Navy ships are not often present. The pirates' links to al-Shabab insurgents are also a worry, Fox said. Fox recommended more effort to hit pirate supply lines and track their money. He stopped short of calling for a greater use of military force, but he said the coalition must go after pirates with the same intensity they use when targeting terrorists... Since last September there has been a significant increase in pirate activity, stretching further out from the Somali coast. According to Fox, the number of hostages taken by pirates has jumped from about 350 to 770 over that time period. He said the pirates are now operating in what he called eight "action groups" in the region, and each includes at least one large mothership and a number of smaller skiffs. Asked whether he would have the authority to sink such a ship if a US vessel came upon one, Fox said the Navy doesn't have the rules of engagement that would allow a commander to do that. U.S. officials to date have said they see no evidence of direct ties between Somali-based pirates and al-Shabab terrorists, but Fox laid out the strongest description yet of possible links. "Al-Shabab is responsible for a lot of training activity and camps and that sort of thing in Somalia," he said. "The pirates use these things. There cannot be a segregation between terrorist activity, in my mind, and counter piracy. We can't be passive and hopeful it doesn't happen." He said a key effort should be following the money trail, tracking where pirates get their fuel, supplies, ladders and outboard motors. And he said that not all of that activity has to be in Somalia, but could be spilling over into other nearby countries "I'm not advocating we suddenly just come out with guns blazing and just change everything," said Fox. "But I would advocate that we used the same techniques that have been successful in our counterterror that we have not heretofore used in our counter-piracy." So far, he said there has not been a broad agreement to commit the counterterrorism resources needed to do that... Shifting to a counterterror approach has not been embraced by U.S. and its allies. Often such a move would suggest more lethal strikes, and it could also trigger renewed debate over whether countries or companies should pay the increasingly higher ransoms for the ships and crews. Treating piracy as a law enforcement matter has reinforced moves to do whatever is necessary to protect the hostages and pay for their release. But under a counterterror strategy, nations insist they do not negotiate with terrorists. "If we could reroll tape, we would say no ransoms paid," Fox said, "but that cow is out of the barn." Companies, he said, want to get their crews back. But, he added, "we've got to find a way to break this cycle of increasing success on the pirates' part."


The mass deaths of thousands of blackbirds in Arkansas was caused by "blunt force trauma," according to a new report by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Laboratory tests were conducted on 13 of the red-winged blackbirds that were part of the group that flew into buildings and died in a neighborhood in Beebe, Arkansas, 40 miles northeast of Little Rock. "The tests ruled out bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, pesticides and avicides (chemicals used to kill birds) as causes of death," the commission said in a statement. These results confirmed preliminary tests that were conducted after the incident. The tests revealed hemorrhaging "consistent with blunt trauma," according to the report released Wednesday. "In most instances, such traumatic injuries in wild birds are due to flying into stationary objects such as trees, houses, windows, power lines, towers, etc." Officials say as many as 5,000 birds died in the incident. This incident came several days before another mass death involving animals. In that separate incident 450 miles south of Beebe, some 500 red-winged blackbirds, starlings and sparrows were found dead. Also that same week, about 50 dead birds were found on a street in Sweden. At the time, the mysterious mass deaths had some wondering if the explanation may be apocalyptic. Actor Kirk Cameron talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the phenomenon. "I'm not the religious-conspiracy-theorist go-to guy," said Cameron, the former star of the hit sitcom "Growing Pains. "But I think it's really kind of silly to try to equate birds falling out of the sky with some kind of an end-times theory."


Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia thanked Vatican Ambassador to the Russian Federation Archbishop Antonio Mennnini who resumes his work in Russia for great help in tuning up relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. "I'd like to thank you for your work as the representative of the Holy See to Moscow and point out to your personal contribution in settling difficult problems in relations between our Churches. With God's mercy these problems are being positively settled which changes climate of the bilateral relations for the better. It is, in many respects, your achievement as a plenipotentiary representative of the Holy See," the Patriarch said at a meeting with the nuncio in Moscow. In his turn, Archbishop Mennini thanked the Russian Church Primate for his help in work. "I've been glad to work for the welfare of our Churches, but this work would have been much more complicated without your support, friendly attitude and Christian love," the nuncio said. "I will never forget you and the Russian Church, but on the contrary will always keep on loving it," Mennini added and assured he was ready to contribute in the mutual witness to Christian values in the world. As was reported last month Pope Benedict XVI of Rome appointed Archbishop Antonio Mennini a nuncio to Britain. Monsignor Mennini was appointed to Russia by late Pope John Paul II of Rome in November 2002. Working in Russia he has always stressed the importance of respectful attitude of Catholics to the Orthodox church tradition. Mennini more than once backed up the Russian Church in its socially important initiatives. Thus, the Archbishop welcomed the ideas of introducing institute of chaplains in the Russian Army and "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" in schools. He also opposed the reproaches of the Moscow Patriarchate in "clericization" of society. Full-fledged diplomatic relations between Russia and the Holy See were established during Mennini's work in Moscow.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Organ evidence lost;Russia slams Hague,warns NATO,Battlefield altered;Iran censors;Google,Holocaust archives;March for Life



A European investigator Wednesday criticized the Hague Tribunal for destroying evidence on organ trafficking in Kosovo. Swiss senator Dick Marty, rapporteur for the Council of Europe, called the disposal of evidence from the Albanian town of Rripe highly irregular, the Serbian broadcaster B92 reported. Based on Marty's report, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Tuesday called on the international community and Serbian, Albanian and Kosovo authorities to ensure justice for human organ trafficking and other war crimes. Marty said action was long overdue. "That certainly is not normal procedure in any tribunal in the world. When you collect evidence and believe you do not have the necessary evidence, or do not have the necessary jurisdiction to continue with your investigation, you never destroy the evidence, especially when there is no statute of limitations," he told the Belgrade daily Blic. He said he was not accusing the war crimes court of conspiracy, however. The Council of Europe issued a report in December accusing the Kosovo Liberation Army leadership, which now rules the territory, of kidnapping and murdering Serb civilians and selling their organs.


Speaking at a PACE meeting in Strasbourg, the Deputy Head of Russia's delegation to PACE Leonid Slutsky said that the work of the Hague Tribunal should be “more accurate”. He said the not guilty verdict on Kosovo’s former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj was an example of improper work of the Tribunal. Earlier this month Ramush Haradinaj was cleared of war crimes charges committed during the conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority between 1998-1999.


Russia wants an unambiguous answer from NATO over Moscow's role in a European missile defence shield and will deploy nuclear weapons if no agreement is reached, President Dmitry Medvedev warned Monday. "Our partners have to understand that we do not want this simply to have some common toys that NATO and us can play with, but because we want adequate protection for Russia," Medvedev said in televised remarks. "So this is not a joking matter. We expect from our NATO partners a direct and unambiguous answer," he said, during a meeting with Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin. Medvedev said Russia would be forced to deploy its own missile defence shield if it was not given an equal role in the one being deployed by Washington and its allies over Europe. "In either case, we are either together with NATO, or we separately find an adequate response to the existing problem," Medvedev said. "Either we agree to certain principles with NATO, or we fail to agree, and then in the future we are forced to adopt an entire series of unpleasant decisions concerning the deployment of an offensive nuclear missile group."


The outfit worn by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to the nuclear talks in Istanbul this weekend appeared too revealing for the sensibilities of Iranian media - who sought to correct the faux pas by censoring her neckline in front page photographs, British newspaper The Telegraph reported Tuesday. According to the Telegraph, Ashton made an effort to steer clear of any physical contact with Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili during the talks in order to avoid offending the Muslim world. What she did not know was that her seemingly conservative top was enough to appear immodest, prompting the Iranian censors to give her a higher neckline. "She was properly dressed," A spokesperson for Ashton told the Telegraph in response. "It was not low-cut. Many women in Iran are in a complete veil. These were international negotiations in a third country." Such tweaking is not out of the ordinary in Iran; actresses who are photographed in foreign countries in revealing clothing often get digitally covered up, while in 2008 photos of a rocket-launching operation of the Iranian army was proven to be edited – an extra rocket was added to the three that were actually launched. The pictures of Ashton were taken during the meeting that took place between the UN Security Council and Iranian negotiators in Turkey to discuss the Islamic Republic's nuclear technology. The talks were generally regarded as a failure, as the world powers found Iran's demands unacceptable.


IDF Chief of General Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi on Wednesday said that "extremist regimes and terrorist organizations have introduced high and low quality weapons, exploitation of civilian human shields and misinformation to the current battlefield. Ashkenazi's comments came in a speech he gave at the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue conference in Brussels, Belgium. "All these tactics have altered the battlefield as we know it." He highlighted NATO's current challenges in Afghanistan as an example of a country where NATO members will encounter "complex strategic, tactical, and logistic issues" pertaining to fighting the war. Ashkenazi also thanked the 40 member countries of NATO, complimenting their achievements "against these terrorist threats. These combined efforts ensure that the extremists who wish to destroy our way of life will never succeed in doing so." "If we wish to completely eradicate this phenomenon, we must stand strongly before it and overcome the legal, operational and intelligence obstacles," he added. "We must use to our advantage all possible means in order to avoid the dangerous spread of unconventional weapons." Following his speech, Ashkenazi thanked the NATO Military Committee chairman Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, and his counterparts for their friendship and partnership. NATO'S Mediterranean Dialogue conference was initiated in 1994. Israel, though not a part of NATO, takes place in meetings because of its importance in the region, and expertise in military issues surrounding terrorism and security. Ashkenazi is scheduled to hold work meetings with military counterparts from around the globe while attending the conference. The meetings involve six other non-NATO countries that lie in the Mediterranean region: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.


Search engine giant Google launched a massive archive retrieval project with Israel's national Holocaust museum on Wednesday with the aim of easing public access to Nazi-era documents and photographs. The project was unveiled on the eve of a global day of remembrance for the six million Jewish Holocaust victims, marked annually on January 27. Officials at Google and Yad Vashem, the Israeli museum founded in the early 1950s, hope the wider use of the Internet to research the greatest tragedy in Jewish history will keep the memory alive and also add to their own knowledge on the subject... To try to prevent that, whenever people search for victims' names on Google they will be encouraged to add their own details about the person to the archived material, for example, by helping to identify photographs. To set the project in motion, Google has indexed some 130,000 photographs and documents ranging from visas to transport lists and testimonials from survivors, and thousands more may be loaded at a later stage... While many of these documents have long been available at the museum, located on a Jerusalem hilltop, and some of them are also on Yad Vashem's own website, access to this information has been limited for the global public. Google's technology is expected to make it easier now to search for clues as to what befell a long-lost relative, while in addition, Yad Vashem hopes that Web browsers will also help fill in the many lingering blanks in its aging archives... The museum was also tapping into social networking sites such as Facebook where a special memorial page was made available this week for the annual remembrance day.


Hundreds of thousands of pro-life demonstrators from across the nation took to the frosty streets of Washington, DC yesterday for the March for Life. The March marked the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a 1973 Supreme Court decision, which held that women have a constitutional right to an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy and that the criminalization of abortion violates a woman’s right to privacy. The March for Life has been held annually in Washington, DC since 1974. The majority of this year’s participants were overwhelmingly young... Among the pre-March rally speakers was... His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of All America and Canada of the Orthodox Church in America. In his address, Metropolitan Jonah told the crowd that abortion “creates a culture of death, which creates a culture of despair, which condemns a generation of women to self-hatred, to decades of guilt, to decades of despair.”... According to a 2010 report by The Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit organization that works to advance and promote sexual and reproductive health, “the United States has one of the highest abortion rates in the developed world.” A 2011 report by National Right to Life puts the number of abortions performed in the United States in 2008 at 1.2 million.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

NATO,Thaci "criminal";al-Qaeda arrests,Egypt,gas stake,Israel;Greek foreign policy;START ratified;Cyprus;March for Life



A London newspaper has published leaked NATO documents that describe Kosovo Albanian PM as one of the "biggest fish" in organized crime in Kosovo. The Guardian has published the article on the day the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is debating a draft resolution based on Dick Marty's report on human organ trafficking in Kosovo, and Albania, writes the BBC. The article also incriminates Xhavit Haliti, "a former head of logistics for the KLA who is now a close ally of the prime minister and a senior parliamentarian in his ruling PDK party", whom the Marty report named as a member of the so-called Drenica Group. The newspaper says the NATO documents are marked secret, and reveal that America and other western backing Kosovo's government "have had extensive knowledge of its criminal connections for several years". Haliti is linked with the Albanian mafia in the report, which also suggests that he is the person who "exerts considerable control over Thaci". Haliti is expected to be among Kosovo's official delegation to Strasbourg tomorrow and has played a leading role in seeking to undermine the Marty report in public, writes the Guardian. The NATO papers, said to have originated in Kosovo in 2004, also suggest that "behind his role as a prominent politician, Haliti is also a senior organized criminal who carries a Czech 9mm pistol and holds considerable sway over the prime minister" It further says that Haliti "more or less ran a fund for the Kosovo war in the late 1990s, profiting from the fund personally before the money dried up. As a result, Haliti turned to organized crime on a grand scale." The daily further quotes from the NATO documents to describe Haliti as "highly involved in prostitution, weapons and drugs smuggling", who "serves as a political and financial adviser to the prime minister". Haliti uses a fake passport to travel abroad because he is black-listed in several countries, including the U.S., according to this. Haliti is further linked to the alleged intimidation of political opponents in Kosovo and two suspected murders dating back to the late 1990s, "when KLA infighting is said to have resulted in numerous killings". "One was a political adversary who was found dead by the Kosovo border, apparently following a dispute with Haliti. A description of the other suspected murder – of a young journalist in Tirana, the Albanian capital – also contains a reference to the prime minister by name, but does not ascribe blame," writes the Guardian. "Haliti is also named in the report by Marty, which is understood to have drawn on NATO intelligence assessments along with reports from the FBI and MI5," says the article. To read the article "Report identifies Hashim Thaci as 'big fish' in organised crime, please click here.


Egyptian Interior Minister General Habib Adli said Tuesday that 19 Arabs suspected of links to al-Qaeda were arrested last month in Egypt en route to Iraq. The suspects were planning to carry out terrorist attacks against various places of worship in Egypt, he said. In an interview with the Egyptian daily al-Ahram, Adli said that the terrorists were arrested before getting a chance to carry out the attacks. "This is a network of an organization that supports Jihad and that wishes to target Christians and jews," he said. According to the minister, al-Qaeda has set up extensions in the region – three branches in Iraq, the Maghreb and the Gaza Strip operating under the name The Army of Islam. "Activists receive funds from these stations as well as orders to carry out attacks, including in Egypt," Adli said. "When the Alexandria attack occurred, I said these are outside hands that carried it out. In the past al-Qaeda has threatened to attack churches and we had information regarding the group's plans to target places of worship." The minister provided details on the terrorist network exposed in Egypt and said it has ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq and includes 19 suicide bombers. According to Adli, one of the suspects involved in the Alexandria attack was in contact with this network directly. On New Year's eve, a car exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year's Mass in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Violent clashes between Copts and security forces broke out following the attack as the government worked to boost security in churches in the country.


Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sameh Fahmi said yesterday that his government was considering claiming a stake in the natural gas reserves recently discovered off the coast of Israel, Egyptian newspaper "Al-Masry Al-Youm" reported. Fahmi observed that three other countries besides Israel - Lebanon, Cyprus and Turkey - were also considering staking claims on the gas reserves. Fahmi cited a recent report by the US Geological Survey that said that total gas reserves found in the area amounted to 122 trillion cubic feet. Fahmi said “We're studying the precise coordinates of the water borders in order to determine our share of the reserves.” He added that his ministry would not sign any new gas export agreements given recent jumps in domestic demand. Fahmi said that the suspension of gas export deals could serve to discourage foreign companies from investing in research and exploration in Egypt.


Prime Minister George Papandreou underlined on Monday that Greece already has enough problems to deal with, "and there is no need to fabricate new, non-existent ones." Addressing Parliament during an off-the-agenda debate requested by the main opposition New Democracy (ND) party, Papandreou added that the country's foreign policy "should unite all Greeks... The (economic) crisis obliges us to think in a very different manner. It is not time for feigned opposition, to create internal enemies with mythical scenarios alleging conspiracies. What we need is to present ourselves firmly united, in order to build a new Greece, one inspired by a new patriotism," he said, adding: "And the Greek people, united and showing an unprecedented maturity and determination are waging a day-to-day battle ... Citizens have understood what went wrong and they know that they have a government that is doing its duty, namely, everything in its power," the prime minister stressed. Additionally, Papandreou underlined that his government, through its efforts to ensure that the country regain its reliability in the fiscal sector, "has managed to keep national issues out of the sphere of Greece's depreciation. This climate should not be undermined by non-existent spectres and chimeras ... Patriotism means to prevent your country from reaching the point where it stands today," he said. Papandreou expressed his displeasure over what he called "pre-emptive criticism" regarding his recent visit to Turkey, reiterating that he has no problem addressing any kind of audience and in any circumstances since, as he said, "if you speak the truth you fear nothing." He was referring to his address to the Turkish diplomatic corps in the NE Turkish city of Erzurum earlier this month. "We told Turkey that we are for peace, but war threats or violations of our national sovereignty have no place in the European Union. It is a useless practice, which secures no advantage for Turkey. The status quo in the Aegean does not change and our pilots stand, as always, ready," the prime minister noted. "Turkey's future is in Europe but the road is not easy. In a few months we gave a new impetus to Greek-Turkish relations. We have signed 22 agreements. We will continue on the same path," he noted. "The government's policy is to delimitate the maritime zones with all neighbouring countries and, of course, there remains the complex issue of the continental shelf, which we must handle with determination," Papandreou said. Regarding the Cyprus issue, the premier said the idea by Turkey and by the Turkish Cypriot leadership for a loose confederation "is not viable, but divisive and not functional." "We support the efforts made by (Cyprus) President (Demetris) Christofias. The other side is trying to lead the process to a deadlock in order to provoke a solution imposed from the outside. But the international community and the EU will not legalise the occupation of Cyprus."


Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, ratified on Tuesday a new strategic arms reduction agreement with the United States. Russian lawmakers approved the document, adding some provisions to the ratification document and issuing two supplementary statements to the resolution on ratification of the treaty. The ratification document provides a legally-binding clause that links strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons. The first supplementary statement addresses the current state and the future of Russia's nuclear deterrent, while the second outlines the State Duma's position on the reduction and limitations of strategic offensive armaments. The new arms reduction pact, replacing START 1, which expired in December 2009, was signed in Prague last April by President Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama. The document slashes the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200. The U.S. Senate ratified the new arms deal with Russia on December 22, 2010, but added several amendments to the resolution on ratification, including a demand to build up U.S. global missile defenses. The new agreement will come into force after ratification by both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council. The upper house could hold its ratification vote as early as in its first session on January 26.


Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on Saturday called for rebuilding the unity and territorial integrity of Cyprus. "The position of both the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia remains unchanged - Cyprus is a single state. All resources must be used to restore the degree of confidence that between the two communities had for centuries and the atmosphere in which people lived," Patriarch Kirill told reporters after he and the archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, led a worship service at the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. There are "quite many means" to reunify Cyprus, and it is "deplorable" that the international community has been unable to have the country reunited, the Patriarch said. He said he would pray "for justice to be restored, for the unity and territorial integrity of Cyprus to be restored, for the two communities - the Greek and Turkish ones - to live together in peace and harmony of thought, maintaining a good relationship and preserving their cultural and religious traditions... We will use all available resources to bring this about," the Patriarch said.


ince 1974, the March for Life has been an annual reminder to the Beltway political machine that America must protect the lives of the unborn. This year was no different, but not with the 20,000 that came to the first March but well over 200,000 who showed up on this cold January Monday. The signs were the same, the chants were similar, but there seemed to be a renewed energy this year. It's hard to determine what may be different, perhaps it's due to the change brought about by the mid-term elections. There also seemed to be a lot of first-time participants at the event who were experiencing the initial awe and awareness that they are not alone in their conviction for life. The March is always a tremendous opportunity to see the unity across denominations and jurisdictions that stand together. In addition Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans and many other groups all joined together to lend their voices for the voiceless - the unborn babies who were killed before they could utter their first cry... Presented with a number of Orthodox bishops who stood for life, Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) told the crowd at the rally of his concern for the moral decay and decadence taking place in America. Part of this degeneration in society is supported by the plague of abortion, "which creates a culture of death; which creates a culture of despair; which condemns a generation of women to self-hatred, to decades of guilt, to decades of despair." "The murder of persons," the Metropolitan went on to say, "whether children in the womb, whether they are sick or elderly, is the same thing - it is murder." He called upon all present to fight against hedonism and selfishness which is at the core of our nation's destruction and take the message of forgiveness and healing to the culture... The March itself was shorter again this year, beginning on 4th Street at the National Mall and marching up Constitution Avenue to 1st Street in front of the Supreme Court.

Friday, January 21, 2011

War criminals;ICJ:FYROM vs Greece;Sudan split;Cyprus-Lebanon;SKorea vs pirates;bin Laden warning;Alaskan way of life



A special Belgrade court for war crimes on Friday sentenced nine ethnic Albanians to a total of 101 years in jail for crimes against Serb and non-loyal Albanian civilians during Kosovo's 1998-99 war. Nine members of the so-called Gnjilane group were arrested in southern Serbia in 2008, but eight other members of the group are still at large and being tried in absentia. The presiding judge Snezana Nikolic-Garotic said it has been proven “beyond doubt” that they took part in the killing of at least 80 civilians in the central Kosovo town of Gnjilane. In addition, 153 civilians were illegally detained and 34 are still listed as missing, she said. All members of the group came from Serbia’s predominantly Albanian populated Presevo Valley, neighboring Kosovo. They joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which started a rebellion against Serbian rule in 1998. Nikolic-Garotic quoted a commander of the group as saying: “Our time for revenge has come. Kill, hide traces and expel Serbs from Kosovo.” Kosovo majority Albanians declared independence with the help of western powers in February 2006, but Belgrade is fighting a diplomatic battle to retain the control over its former province. Nikolic-Garotic said it has been proven, based on testimonies, medical evidence and documents, that the members of the group cruelly tortured the detainees, cutting of their genitals, breaking bones and raping women. Women were often raped with police sticks and humiliated in different ways, the judge said. When some detainees were released in June 1999, they were told to leave Kosovo and tell other Serbs what would happen to them if they returned. Serb forces were accused of excessive use of force and expulsion of several hundred thousand Albanians in an attempt to suppress the rebellion. NATO bombed Serbia from March to June 1999 to stop what was called a “humanitarian catastrophe”, pushing Serbian troops and police out of Kosovo and triggering a mass exodus of Serbs. Serbian courts have sentenced scores of former policemen and paramilitaries in recent years for crimes against Albanian civilians during the war.


The International Court of Justice in The Hague will begin discussions on the lawsuit, which Macedonia initiated against Greece for breaking the Temporary agreement from 1995, Deutsce Welle Radio reports. The discussions are expected to last about two weeks. With that the last stage of proceedings begins, but a decision could be reached in no less than 6 months or probably not until the end of the year. Macedonia initiated legal proceedings against Greece in the International Court of the UN on November 17 2008, explaining that Greece had violated the Temporary agreement by blocking Macedonia’s accession to NATO. Athens on the other hand insists that the decision was actually taken collectively by all member-states.


Preliminary figures indicate that 99 percent of the residents of southern Sudan want the African nation split into two separate regions, officials said. The BBC reported Friday that voting commission official George Benjamin said, "The trend clearly shows that secession is the willing option of the two options of the referendum. The Voice of America reported a senior official of the southern Sudan referendum commission said that, barring any court challenges, it would announce the final outcome of the vote on February 7. President Omar al-Bashir said he would accept the result of the vote, which was conducted after years of war. International observers said the referendum was conducted freely and fairly.


The Cypriot Foreign Affairs Minister said that "the Lebanese should be given the opportunity to handle their country's internal crisis on their own." Minister Markos Kyprianous currently on a visit to Lebanon met on Friday with care-taker Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Ali Shami and relayed his government's respect to the Lebanese constitution and democracy. "We would like to express our full support and hope that Lebanon will eventually witness a state of stability... but we should allow the Lebanese people to handle their national problems on their own," he said. In response to a question on whether Cyprus is currently involved in any mediation (provided that it is a member of the European Union) the Cypriot Minister said that he's not sure about his country's involvement thus far. "One of the main reasons I'm currently here [in Lebanon] is that the Lebanese issue is going to be brought up during Brussels conference. Stemming from the special relations that tie Lebanon to Cyprus, I would like to be able to present a primary point of view on the situation in Lebanon to my colleagues in the EU," the Cypriot Minister explained. Moreover, Kyprianous said that the water demarcation issue was brought up with Minister Shami, beside other bilateral issues.


South Korean special forces stormed a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea, rescuing the 21-member crew and killing eight Somali pirates in the nation's first such raid since sending warships to the area in 2009. The captain of the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry suffered a gunshot wound in the operation that isn’t life-threatening, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said today in a statement. South Korea’s navy captured eight other Somali pirates during the assault, which was ordered by President Lee Myung Bak yesterday, the military said. At least five nations have sent naval vessels to patrol waters off the Somali coast as the piracy threat has grown. Pirates hijacked a record 53 ships and 1,181 crew members in 2010, most of them off Somalia, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau. “We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people,” Lee said today in a statement. Special forces raided the seized vessel in the Gulf of Aden in a pre-dawn operation against 13 armed hijackers, the military said in the statement on the defense ministry’s website. South Korea received help from other countries, including the U.S., Joint Chiefs of Staff official Lee Seong Ho told reporters today in Seoul.


A man believed to be Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has demanded France pull its troops out of Afghanistan, warning the country of a "high price" for its policies, in an audio message broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Friday. "We repeat our message," bin Laden said. "The release of your prisoners from the hands of our brothers is linked to the withdrawal of your soldiers from our country." At least seven French hostages - five in the Sahara Desert and two in Afghanistan - are being held by extremist groups associated with Al Qaeda. Addressing the French people, bin Laden said that the refusal of President Nicolas Sarkozy to withdraw from Afghanistan "is the result of his obedience to America" and that it "is a green light to kill your prisoners." Sarkozy's position will "cost him and you a high price on different fronts, inside and outside France," he said.


On the morning of January 18, 2011 -- the Eve of the Great Feast of Theophany on the Julian Calendar -- a two-engine Navajo bush plane carried His Grace, Bishop Benjamin from Anchorage through Lake Clark Pass to the Tanaina Athabaskan (Indian) village of Nondalton... "Situated on the eastern boundary of a square mile area three times the size of Manhatten Island, Nondalton has been targeted by the Northern Dynasty/Anglo-American corporations to become the world’s largest open pit copper and gold mine, threatening the world’s largest salmon fishery," explained Father Michael, Acting Chancellor of the Diocese. "The Orthodox villages of Newhalen, Igiugig, Levelock, Koliganek, New Stuyahok, Ekwok, Portage Creek, Naknek, and South Naknek and the city of Dillingham are all threatened by the opening of the Pebble Mine, which would become the world’s largest consumer of deadly cyanide as it processes and separates the ores. Father Michael added that a 740 foot high earthen dam five times larger than one that recently collapsed in Hungary, poisoning the Danube River in Eastern Europe, would contain tons of pollutants and poisons -- in an earthquake zone! "Hundreds of Orthodox Alaska Natives have banded together to oppose the State of Alaska’s authorizing the development of the Pebble Project," Father Michael said. "In an effort to express support for them in their struggle to save their culture, their way of life, their commitment to the land that has sustained them and their ancestors for the last 12,000 years, the Diocese of Alaska passed a unanimous resolution in 2009, invoking God’s blessing on any development that would improve the economy and enhance the quality of life in rural Alaska and withholding such approval for any that threatened to pollute or poison the ecosystem. "The Alaska Native people are ‘the voice of the earth and must now speak up to defend and preserve the land that has sustained them for millenia," Father Michael stated. "Since Northern Dynasty and Anglo-American are Canadian and British corporations, the profits from the Pebble Mine would largely flow outside the United States, while leaving tons of debris, equal to 3000 pounds for every person, man, woman and child on earth, at the end of the mining operation."

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Greeks,Armenians Butchered;Kosovo;Berlusconi;Russia-NATO;China bashing;BoyGeorge returns icon,Cyprus;Kursk Root Icon



Greece and Armenia were “butchered” by Turkey in their past, the Greek president told his Armenian counterpart yesterday as he bemoaned a costly arms race with Ankara that helped create Greece’s vast debts. “We were butchered by the same barbarian,” President Karolos Papoulias told his counterpart Serzh Sdargsyan who began a three-day visit. He added that “many things have changed” since the early 20th century when the killings of Armenians and Black Sea Greeks occurred, and criticised a decades-old arms buildup that has cost Athens billions of euros. “If we did not have the economic burden of arms balance we would not need the International Monetary Fund,” 81-year-old Papoulias said. “We give the most money in Nato for armament, this is unfair for a people that is peaceful,” he added. Athens nearly went bankrupt last year and had to be rescued by the European Union and the IMF when concerns over its massive budget deficits and a state debt of nearly 300bn euros ($400bn) dried up new loans. Greece says thousands of ethnic Greeks living on the southern shores of the Black Sea for centuries were massacred in Turkey during strife that accompanied the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern Turkish state. Armenia charges that up to 1.5mn of its kin were victims of genocide during World War I under the Ottoman Empire. Ankara rejects the “genocide” charge, countering that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian forces.


EP rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek pointed out in her report to the EP that technical improvements were noticeable at the December election in Kosovo, as well as repeat voting in January, but that there were also serious oversights. Lunacek supported the calls to create a "clean hands" government in Kosovo, which means it cannot include people who are under investigation for crime or corruption, reported Deutsche Welle. She believes that Dick Marty and his associates should turn over the evidence they have on Kosovo to EULEX. But all the persons named in his report should also cooperate to fully clear up the matter, she said. Ulrike Lunacek supports Serbia's EU integration, but believes it should recognize Kosovo. The EU will not admit a member country that does not recognize another country. This will not happen again after Cyprus, I am sure the EU has learnt that lesson, Lunacek said.


Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi should answer allegations regarding his erotically-charged home parties but only a third of Italians think the so-called Ruby-gate scandal rocking the country will cost him politically, according to the first opinion poll released since Milan prosecutors notified the premier that he is under investigation. An overwhelming 79% of those polled said Berlusconi should allow himself to be questioned by the prosecutors, according to the poll by the reputable IPSOS agency. Berlusconi has said he wants to speak to "judges" but claims the investigating magistrates in Milan don't have jurisdiction over the case and are biased against him. Asked on a television talk show about reports that Berlusconi invited dozens of young ladies, including one legal minor nicknamed "Ruby," to soirees that ended in nudity, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano has also said that Berlusconi has been subject to judicial persecution for 17 years. Some 30% of Italians agree with that claim, which the prime minister makes regularly, according to the IPSOS poll. But 54% do not. Only 13% of Italians think Ruby-gate will mark the end of Berlusconi's political career, while another 24% think it's a "heavy signal" of his political decline, the poll found. But that view is more than offset by the 26% of Italians who think the whole affair is inconsequential and will be forgotten within a few days, and the 24% who say they expect the claims to boomerang against the cheering opposition and lead Berlusconi to win more votes in the future, according to IPSOS. However, the poll also found that Italians are increasingly unimpressed by their nation's political class. Some 51% said that Berlusconi's personal issues--the premier has referred to his occasional need for "relaxing evenings"--were distracting him from Italy's problems and "leading him to make bad choices." Other opinion polls have shown the number of politically disaffected Italians is on the rise, with many saying they are likely to abstain from voting. If such attitudes persist, claims the country would not accept a technocratic government to push through urgent reforms may weaken. Still, more Italians--42%--believe Berlusconi will manage to lead his government to the end of the legislature in 2013, while 28% expect early elections to be called soon. Berlusconi is the ideeal prime minister according to 17% of Italians, the poll found. The next choice was Nichi Vendola, the left-wing and gay governor of the region of Puglia, with 11%, followed by Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi with 9%, IPSOS said. The poll, conducted by canvassing 1,000 Italian adults on Jan. 17, was commissioned by Ballaro, a television show on state broadcaster RAI.


NATO's vision for European missile defense is two independent, but coordinated systems, the alliance's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Wednesday. Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate in the creation of a joint missile defense shield in Europe during a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Lisbon in November last year. The parties agreed to formulate terms for missile defense cooperation by June 2011. "By exchanging information we share a bigger, wider picture of the skies above Europe. By developing potential synergy between two systems we would improve the protection of the allied and Russian territories," Rasmussen said, adding that by having two independent systems, Russia and NATO states would avoid outsourcing their security to one another. Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said in mid-January that Russia did not want to create two different systems that would exchange information, as this would be "aimed at deterring Russia's nuclear potential under the guise of protection against Iranian missiles." He proposed instead to create a fully-fledged system with "joint centers for establishing threats and based on joint decisions."


Just as President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao were trumpeting the strength and importance of the U.S.-China relationship on the White House's South Lawn, a bipartisan group of lawmakers were harshly criticizing the Chinese government from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. As China's newest emperor has just landed in Washington and is at the front lawn of the White House, the pressing issues which separate our countries need to be urgently addressed," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the new head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said at the beginning of Wednesday's hearing on China. "When the Cold War ended over two decades ago, many in the West assumed that the threat from communism had been buried with the rubble of the Berlin Wall. However, while America slept, an authoritarian China was on the rise.".. Former committee chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) took a somewhat more balanced tone, calling China "neither an ally nor an enemy," but also focused his opening remarks on China's failure to adhere to sanctions against Iran, its refusal to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear program, and its lack of respect for human rights. "There is ample evidence that Chinese entities continue to invest in Iran's energy sector. This helps Tehran avoid the full impact of sanctions and facilitates Iran's continued development of a nuclear weapons capability which threatens the U.S., our allies in the Middle East and China, which is dependent on stable sources of oil from the Middle East," Berman said. "We must intensify our efforts to ensure China's full participation in the multilateral sanctions regime against Iran." On Tuesday, Berman joined Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) to call on Chinese companies to halt their business with Iran's energy sector lest they be penalized under the recently-passed U.S. sanctions legislation signed into law by Obama last July... Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), the chairman-designate of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations, concluded the proceedings with some ole' fashioned China bashing, calling Hu a murderer of children. "This is wrong. We should not be granting monstrous regimes that are engaged with massive human rights abuses -- and in this case the world's worst human rights abuser is being welcomed to our White House with respect," Rohrabacher said. "The people of China are America's greatest allies -- the people of China who want democracy, the people of China who want to respect human rights, and are looking forward to a more humane system at peace with the world. Those are our allies. What do we do to them when we welcome their oppressor, their murderer, the one who's murdering their children here to the United States with such respect?"


Musician Boy George has agreed to return to the Church of Cyprus an icon of Christ that came into his possession 11 years after the Turkish invasion. The former Culture Club singer bought the piece from a London art dealer in 1985 without knowing its origin. Boy George - real name George O'Dowd - said he was "happy the icon is going back to its original rightful home". "I have always been a friend of Cyprus and have looked after the icon for 26 years," he added. "I look forward to seeing the icon on display in Cyprus for the moment and finally to the Church of St Charalambos from where it was illegally stolen." The goodwill gesture came about after the church in New Chorio-Kythrea village gave evidence proving it was its rightful owner. Bishop Porfyrios of Neapolis expressed "joy and gratitude" as the singer handed over the icon at the St Anagyre church in north London. The gesture, he said, had "contributed to the efforts of the Church of Cyprus for the repatriation of its stolen spiritual treasures". Thousands of religious artefacts went missing from northern Cyprus following Turkey's invasion of the island and its subsequent partition.


The Rev. George Livanos was awed and humbled when he received a call asking if All Saints Greek Orthodox Church in Canonsburg would host a visit of one of the most beloved icons in all of Orthodox Christianity. It wasn't just that the 715-year-old Kursk Root Icon is said to have wrought many miracles. He felt a connection because he had named his son for St. Seraphim of Sarov, an 18th-century monk who was healed of a deadly childhood illness after venerating this icon of the Virgin Mary... In Orthodox theology, icons are far more than pictures. The church teaches that they convey the word of God through imagery, much as the Bible does through writing. "Icons are windows into Heaven," Father Livanos said. "The people who are portrayed in the icon are those who have lived amongst us who offered themselves as living sacrifices and made God the sole purpose of their existence. ... They are to remind us of what we are called to be and who we truly are." According to tradition, in 1295 a hunter in the Kursk region of Russia found a beautiful icon of the Virgin Mary lying by a tree root. When he picked it up, a new spring began to flow. The hunter built a humble wooden chapel for the icon, and those who came to came to venerate it began to report miraculous healings. When a prince built a church for the icon in a nearby city, the icon is said to have miraculously returned to its humble chapel. Tradition says that when Tartars tried to burn the chapel in 1383, it wouldn't ignite. When the invaders broke the icon in two, the pieces later miraculously melded in the hands of a saintly priest who had tried to protect it. In 1597 a monastery was founded at the chapel site. During another Tartar invasion the icon was moved to the Kursk cathedral. A tradition began of carrying the icon 19 miles in procession each summer to the Kursk Root Monastery, where it would remain until Sept. 12. The stories of its miracles continued. In 1898 anarchists planted a bomb in the Kursk cathedral. The windows were all blown out, an iron door was blasted off its hinges and a candlestick near the icon shot across the cathedral, but the icon was unscathed. After the Bolshevik revolution, as communists closed churches and persecuted the faithful, monks smuggled the Kursk Root Icon to safety. It traveled within Russia before it was taken to what is now the Republic of Serbia. Smuggled to safety again in World War II, it brought comfort to newly freed prisoners and displaced persons in Munich. Eventually it found a home in the New York cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. When it was returned to Kursk after the collapse of the Soviet Union, "hundreds of thousands of people came to venerate the Mother of God through this icon," Father Livanos said. While it is known as a wonder-working icon, he cautioned his congregation not to be caught up in seeking miracles. "God heals, and healing takes place in different forms at different times for different reasons," he said. "If 50 people who have cancer come and venerate it and none of them is healed, it's not because God has been on vacation. It's for other reasons surpassing human intelligence. ... Don't come here and say, 'Darn it, I still have to go for back surgery.' There, too, is healing."

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

EU-KLA organ trade;Smoking kills more men,Greek ban;Cyprus;OSCE-NK ceasefire;Coptics,Orthodox&Catholic pilgrimage



The groundwork is being laid for an investigation of claims Kosovo's prime minister was involved in organ trafficking, a European Union prosecutor said. Isabelle Arnal, the chief prosecutor for the European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo said a letter has been sent to the Swiss politician who accused Hashim Thaci of responsibility for the death of Serb prisoners in the 1990s and the sale of their kidneys, the EUobserver reported Wednesday. Arnal said she and her deputy met with their Albanian counterparts to seek assurances Albanian authorities would cooperate in the investigation. An accusation of Thaci's involvement in the organ selling was made to the Council of Europe in December by Dick Marty. "People very close to Thaci were implicated, so it is difficult to imagine that he has never heard about it," the Swiss politician told a radio interviewer. Human Rights Watch has called for the law mission to appoint an independent, high-level special prosecutor to handle the inquiry.


Why do women live longer than men in Europe? A recent study published online in Tobacco Control says smoking may account for 40 to 60 percent of the gender gap in death rates. Scientists used World Health Organization figures on death rates among men and women to sort out factors in 30 European countries. Deaths from all causes were higher for men than for women. Causes of death related to smoking included respiratory tract cancers, coronary artery disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Eastern European countries have a gender gap of more than 400 per 100,000. Spain, France, Finland, Belgium, and Portugal had the widest gaps. The difference was obvious in both countries ranging from 188 per 100,000 of the population a year like Iceland, to 942 per 100,000 in the Ukraine. "Profound changes in the population level of smoking and in the magnitude of the gender gap in smoking should contribute to smaller gender differences in mortality in the coming decades.", the authors said. Deaths related to alcohol were particularly high among men in Eastern European countries. Overall, death rate attributed to alcohol ranged from 20 to 30 percent. Compared to the impact of smoking, that is significantly lower. Causes of alcohol-related deaths included throat and gullet cancer, chronic liver disease, as well as alcoholic psychosis and violence. Study participants were also from Greece, Malta, and Cyprus, besides the several Western and Eastern European counties mentioned. Russia and Scandinavian were excluded.


Greece has pledged to enforce a smoking ban enacted last year, the latest after decades of failed effort, which continues to be widely flouted in Europe's most nicotine-addicted nation. The health ministry said it would hire additional inspectors to bolster a feeble response by municipal officials as a leading anti-tobacco activist on Wednesday rejected arguments by cafes and restaurants that the ban chases away their patrons in the midst of a bitter recession. "We need to protect public health even if it hurts the pockets of some people," Panagiotis Bechrakis, a prominent pulmonary expert, told Flash Radio. A day earlier, Health Minister Andreas Loverdos had warned that the crackdown would be enforced "without exception... Those who smoked in bars, restaurants and cafes in recent months have smoked enough," he told reporters. As a response to the reluctance of many mayors to aggressively pursue the ban -- a trend largely blamed on local elections in November - Loverdos said hundreds of state inspectors would be brought in to do the job. "The state can be ridiculed no longer," the minister said, noting that in the last two months there had been 343,000 complaints from non-smokers but only 3,000 fines were imposed. Loverdos had earlier proposed to levy 'smoking licenses' on businesses to fill the state's depleted coffers but Prime Minister George Papandreou, a dedicated non-smoker, quashed the proposal, reports said. Restaurant and cafe owners say that business is already down by 30-50 percent because of the recession gripping Greece, and the smoking restriction has brought a further slump of up to 80 percent in turnover.

IV. FINANCIALMIRROR - Britian: No partition in Cyprus

The British government has reiterated its commitment to a solution in Cyprus based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation, noting that it is not interested in arguments about the partition of the island. “Our commitment is to a bi-zonal bi-communal Cyprus. We are not interested in arguments about partition. I make that absolutely clear”, said British Minister of State Lord Howell before the House of Lords. He added that the British government is “fully supportive” of UN efforts to achieve a settlement in Cyprus “based on the bi-zonal concept with political equality as defined by the relevant Security Council resolutions”. Commending the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, President of Cyprus Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu “for the progress they have made so far” at the UN – led Cyprus talks, he said that “we are seeking to do everything we can with our EU partners to upgrade the welfare position of the Turkish Cypriot people so that they are prepared, I hope, for the day when we can have the solution that we all want to see”. In his statements, Lord Hannay, former British Special Representative on the Cyprus issue, noted that decisive progress in Turkey’s EU accession bid is the key that will unlock the door to a solution of the Cyprus problem. “Turkish Foreign Minister’s Ahmet Davutoglu’s precept of zero problems with the neighbours is a fine policy slogan but Cyprus is a neighbour and so is Greece”, he said. Lord Hannay noted that “the present impasse in the UN- led negotiations for a settlement of the Cyprus problem, although far from being solely the responsibility of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots will remain a pebble in their shoe for as long as it is not definitely removed”. As he pointed out, “decisive progress in Turkey’s accession bid is surely the key that will unlock the door to a solution of the Cyprus problem”. He went on to say that “we should be doing all that we can to help move those Cyprus negotiations forward... The UN faces the usual Sisyphean task and needs all the help it can get. Unaided it will not succeed”, he concluded. The Republic of Cyprus, which became a full EU member state in May 2004, is divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and since then occupy 37% of Cyprus’ territory. UN - led Cyprus talks are underway between President of Cyprus Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu with a view to reunify the country.


Officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will moniter on Wednesday the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said. OSCE officials regularly monitor the ceasefire on the border with the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region to prevent a sudden escalation of tension between the two countries. Last time the border was last monitered, on January 12, no ceasefire violations were recorded. Armenia and Azerbaijan frequently accuse each other of violating the 1994 ceasefire agreement in the disputed area. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian region, first erupted in 1988, when the region claimed independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia.


The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church cancelled celebrations for the Feast of Epiphany on Tuesday over concerns for the safety of the country's Christians after a New Year's Day bombing that killed 23 people. Officials suspect an al Qaeda-inspired bomber was behind the New Year's blast outside a church in the port city of Alexandria. Islamist websites had carried repeated threats to attack churches and have since carried threats to strike again. Pope Shenouda, who led mass on Coptic Christmas on January 6, in a tense but incident-free service, will hold a small and closed celebration on Tuesday instead of the larger mass that had been planned, the pope's legal adviser said... Christians make up about 10 percent of Muslim-majority Egypt's 79 million people. Tensions often flare between the two communities over issues such as building churches or close relationships between members of the two faiths. Alexandria's attack was on a much bigger scale and appeared far more organised than the kind of violence that usually erupts when communal frustrations boil over, analysts say. Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq, which attacked a church in Baghdad two months ago in what it called a response to the mistreatment of Muslim converts by Egyptian Copts, has threatened Egyptian Christians. A statement posted on an Islamist website called on Muslims to "bomb churches during the Christmas holiday when churches are crowded". A Cairo-based priest said they were instructed to keep mass short and to prevent large gatherings outside of churches. Security sources said however measures to secure the safety of worshippers were in place. Extra police had been deployed outside of the main churches during Christmas celebrations.


This is the fourth and final installment in Archbishop George Niederauer’s series on Orthodox and Catholics’ Nov. 21-Dec. 2 ecumenical pilgrimage to Rome, Athens and Constantinople (Istanbul). The archbishop and Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco led a 28-member group from both communities. On Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 (the First Sunday in Advent for Catholics), we ecumenical pilgrims left Athens for Constantinople (renamed Istanbul by Turkish sultans after 1453). This magnificent city is the gateway between the continents of Europe and Asia, and has hosted three empires: Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman. In Constantinople is located the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the headquarters of His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, presiding as 270th successor to St. Andrew the Apostle, elder brother of St. Peter and founder of the 2,000-year-old Christian church in this region. As Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew convenes councils and meetings of other patriarchs and hierarchs within Orthodoxy, facilitates inter-church and inter-faith dialogue, and serves as spiritual leader of approximately 250 million faithful worldwide, including the Orthodox Church in America. Together with the late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, and now Pope Benedict XVI, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has supported progress toward the reconciliation and reunion of the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Christianity. He is uniquely placed and experienced to lead in building peace and reconciliation among the Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim faiths. The main buildings of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are located in a compound called the Phanar. We arrived there Monday afternoon, Nov. 29, for an audience with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the celebration of the Great Vespers of the next day’s Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. As we entered the Phanar we were shown the patriarchate’s main gate, which has remained permanently sealed shut since April 1821, when Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory V was hanged on that spot by the sultan, for the crime of assisting the Greek people in their successful struggle for freedom against the tyranny of the Ottoman Empire. We proceeded to the beautiful Cathedral of St. George for the Vespers service. Located in this Cathedral are the throne of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the column of Christ’s flogging, splendid icons and the Holy Relics of St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom, which Patriarch Bartholomew received from Pope John Paul II in November 2004 (they had been in St. Peter’s Basilica for 800 years). On Nov. 30, we were privileged to attend the celebration of the Divine Liturgy on the feast of St. Andrew. For several years now it has become the custom that the Ecumenical Patriarch or his representative attends the celebration of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome on June 29, and the pope or his representative attends the celebration of the Feast of St. Andrew in Constantinople on Nov. 30. This last year His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (whom we pilgrims had met with a week before in Rome), represented Pope Benedict XVI and during the liturgy delivered the Holy Father’s message, underlining “the need to progress toward full communion with the Orthodox Church, so as to give a greater Christian witness to the world.” His All-Holiness Bartholomew replied gratefully and warmly, urging both Churches to “continue to examine, in love and sincerity, the theological matters that both unite and still divide, ‘until we arrive at the unity of faith,’ according to St. Paul the Apostle.’” (Ephesians 4:13). On Dec. 1, the last full day of our pilgrimage, we visited Hagia Sophia (the Church of Holy Wisdom), originally the largest church in the Christian world, built by the Emperor Justinian, A.D. 532-537. After their victory in 1453, the Muslims converted the church into a mosque, but since the last century it has been a museum. Some of its glorious mosaics can now be seen. The dome is 182 feet high, with a diameter of 103 feet. To employ a now much-abused term, Hagia Sophia is genuinely an “awesome” sight. We also visited the famous Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar. The following morning we departed Constantinople for home. In another sense, our ecumenical pilgrims had never left home: We had visited each other’s spiritual homelands – Rome, Athens and Constantinople – and, Orthodox and Catholic alike, we had felt in many ways spiritually “at home” in all three.

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