I. EUROPEANVOICE - EU Ministers to ask Greece to clarify border fence plan with Turkey
Greece will next week be asked to provide more details about the fence it plans to build on its border with Turkey. Member states' interior ministers will seek to clarify the size of the fence, as initial reports talked of it covering the entire 150-kilometre border and subsequent government statements said that it would be only 12.5km long. The European Commission has warned that the fence is not a long-term solution to the problem of illegal migration. Greece's border with Turkey has become the main route of illegal migration to the EU as trans-Mediterranean routes have been made more difficult. Frontex, the EU's border agency, sent more than 200 guards to the Greek land border in November, after an invitation from the government to assist in the face of a sudden increase in migration. The initial two-month mandate of the mission has been extended until March. Frontex said last month that illegal crossings at the border had dropped by 44% compared with October. There are concerns that tighter security at the Turkish-Greek border will lead to increased pressure on Turkey's border with Bulgaria. These fears come at a critical moment for Bulgaria, which, together with Romania, is seeking to join the EU's Schengen area of borderless travel.
II. BLOOMBERG - Cyprus Air to Get Payment for Turkish Ban
Cyprus’s government will compensate state-controlled Cyprus Airways for extra costs caused by Turkey’s ban on Cypriot air traffic using its air space, provided the carrier agrees to reorganize, the Cyprus Mail said. The government will pay the airline 20 million euros ($26 million) for the increased costs of some flights, especially to and from Russia, if it agrees to pay-cuts and redundancies that would save 12 million euros, the newspaper said, citing Nicos Tampas, who represents the Cyprus Workers’ Confederation.
The European Parliament's rapporteur for Kosovo, Ulrike Lunacek, said on Jan. 12 that the proposals of certain political parties, for a new general election to be held in Kosovo at the end of the year due to numerous irregularities during the vote in December, should be considered very seriously. Lunacek told TV Kosovo that she had monitored the repeated election in some municipalities in Kosovo and that she had seen electoral manipulation first hand. "Kosovo is one electoral unit. The [electoral] system has many flaws and this is why preparations must start as soon as possible, for an election to be held by the end of the year, which is being proposed by some political parties," she said. Before the new election, she added, new institutions should be formed, which would function until the new vote.
With the future of the euro in doubt, there is a growing line of critics warning countries which are embracing the single currency that they are boarding a sinking ship. RT spoke to David Campbell Bannerman, a deputy leader of the UK Independence Party, about why Europe needs to open its eyes. “It is extremely dangerous, as we are seeing with the euro, to force such divergent nations together. I think the tensions you create – economic and political – are profoundly dangerous,” he told RT. “I personally think the euro will collapse, and soon. I think it could be January or February,” David Campbell Bannerman concluded.
V. REUTERS - Iran: Nuclear sites tour to go ahead "as planned"
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he had not yet seen any official response from China or Russia to his invitation last week to some ambassadors accredited to the U.N. nuclear body. But he said other ambassadors would attend the January 15-16 trip in Iran, which Iranian officials have described as a goodwill gesture and sign of openness regarding the Islamic state's disputed nuclear program. Soltanieh earlier this week said envoys representing groupings of mainly developing countries and others would join the tour, including Egypt, Cuba, the Arab League as well as Syria and Venezuela. "Yes, we will definitely go tomorrow, they have all confirmed," he told Reuters on Thursday. "The trip was originally planned for the Non-Aligned Movement, G77 and the Arab League ... it will be realized tomorrow exactly as was planned originally. "This time we also invited others to join us ... if at the last moment, if they are coming, (they are) welcome," Soltanieh added.
VI. ITARTASS - Lavrov hopes Russia, NATO able to resolve row on joint ABM
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hopes that Russia and NATO will be able to resolve in principle the row over joint missile defence. This year experts will gather in Moscow and in Washington for consultations on this issue, Lavrov told journalists on Thursday. He recalled: the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon decided that this would be the work within the Russia-NATO Council because American partners would be involved. “There is no more such thing in Europe such as American missile defence. But there is the NATO missile defence project. The Russian president and the leaders of NATO countries instructed to analyse ways to create joint missile defence – not NATO’s, but the Russia-NATO Council ABM,” Lavrov stressed. “This instruction should be fulfilled till mid-June when we can see if this project is successful or not. I hope that we will succeed. On the contrary the situation may heighten,” he pointed out.
Archpriest Jerome Cwiklinski, US Navy Chaplain and a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, and an Orthodox chaplain from the Republic of Georgia, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord for military personnel here on January 7, 2011. In a video interview posted here, Father Jerome, who serves with Marine Corps Forces Central Command, discusses the signifance of the event. It contains moving images of the Liturgy in addition to commentary. As an aside, Father Jerome noted that "what goes around, comes around. In 1944, Saint Mary Cathedral, Minneapolis, MN contributed the first Orthodox priest to the Navy Chaplain Corps -- Father Alexander Seniavsky. Since World War II, the Orthodox Chaplaincy perpetuated from the legacy of Father Alexander to the present time and the Global War on Terrorism. Another spiritual son of Saint Mary’s, Lance Corporal Michael Memorich, was a recent beneficiary of that legacy, as I visited him in Afghanistan." As reported on the OCA web site here, Father Jerome and Priest Christopher, a National Guard chaplain and a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America currently deployed to Afghanistan, provided coverage in Afghanistan's northeastern region in December and January.