I. EKATHIMERINI - UN: Ban upbeat after Cyprus talks
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.
III. B92 - Holocaust Remembrance Day marked
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.
IV. RIANOVOSTI - Medvedev calls for eradicating social roots of terrorism
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."
VII. INTERFAX - Patriarch Kirill thanks Vatican envoy for important contribution in improving Orthodox-Catholic relations
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.