FRANCE is the most pessimistic nation in the world, according to a recent survey. The survey asked people about the national economic outlook for 2011. It polled more than 63,000 people from 53 countries and found the French to be the most gloomy about their future, followed by people in Iceland, Romania, Serbia and the UK, French daily newspaper Le Parisien reported on Monday. Up to 61 percent of the country's inhabitants believe 2011 will be "a year of economic difficulty," compared with an average of 28 percent of respondents worldwide. The country with the most positive outlook was Nigeria, followed by Vietnam, Brazil, Ghana, China and Kosovo, according to the survey conducted by BVA market research group and the Gallup International Association. Nigerians were rated at 70 points on the optimism scale, with Vietnam at 61 and Ghana at 47. Afghans racked up 24 points, while Europeans and Americans all scored negatives, with Britain at minus 44 and France at minus 58.
II. FORBES - Cyprus to license offshore oil and gas search
A top Cyprus energy official says the Mediterranean island will go ahead with a second licensing round for oil and gas exploration off its southern coast later this year. Energy Service Director Solon Kassinis said in an e-mail on Tuesday that the licensing round "is anticipated to be announced within the second half of 2011." The island's 51,000-square-kilometer (17,000-square-mile) exploration area is divided into 13 blocks. Kassinis said two blocks on the easternmost edge of the exploration area that were left out of the first licensing round in 2007 will be included in the second one. Cyprus has licensed U.S. firm Noble Energy to explore an 800,000-acre (1,250-square-mile) block bordering Israeli waters where massive gas fields have been found under the seabed.
Archaeologists on the Greek island of Crete have found startling evidence that early humans could navigate across open water thousands of years earlier than previously thought, officials said Monday. A team of US and Greek archaeologists reached that conclusion after finding stone tools and axes dating from at least 130,000 years ago on Crete, which was already an island at the time, the Greek culture ministry said. "The findings not only prove marine travel in the Mediterranean existed tens of thousands of years prior to what was known until today, but they also change calculations about early man's cognitive abilities," the ministry said. It noted that the chiseled shards found in the areas of Plakia and Preveli in 2008 and 2009, and attributed to the Homo heidelbergensis and Homo erectus species, "constitute the most ancient sign of early navigation worldwide." Greek archaeologists working with the Athens-based American School of Classical Studies had originally been searching for the remains of Stone Age settlements in the island's southwest dating to 10,000 BCE. Conclusive evidence of human habitation on Crete had so far been established for the Neolithic period, up to 7,000 BCE. Instead, the tools discovered could be up to 700,000 years old, the ministry said.
IV. UPI - Colony of rare seals found in Greece
Scientists say they've discovered a colony of rare Mediterranean monk seals, the world's most endangered seals, at a secret location on the coast of Greece. The seals are also one of the world's most endangered sea mammals, with fewer than 600 individuals thought to exist. Researchers say they are keeping the location of the seal colony secret so human visitors won't disturb them. It is the only location in the region where the monk seals lie on open beaches rather than hiding in coastal caves. Being on the beach was the seal's "original behavior," one scientist says."It is human disturbance that has caused the species to retreat to inaccessible caves," says Alexandros Karamanlidis, scientific coordinator of the Mom/Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal. "So this place is incredibly important -- the seals feel so secure that they go out on to open beaches." Human activity has also affected the number of seal pups that survive into adulthood, he says. "Because of human disturbance, [the seals] give birth in these coastal caves, [meaning that] more pups die during storms," Karamanlidis says. The society has asked the Greek government to make the area where the seals live a marine protected area.
V. ISAINTEL - Swiss Outraged at Kosovo PM’s Nazi Propaganda Comments
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has likened the recently leaked Council of Europe report – which accuses Thaci of leading an organized crime network smuggling everything from weapons and drugs to human organs harvested from kidnapped Serbs – to Nazi-style propaganda, and its author, Swiss Senator Dick Marty to Joseph Goebbels. Outraged, Swiss officials said the comparison was “violent” and “offensive”, with one Swiss parliamentarian telling the daily Le Matin that the comment was “indicative of this unsavory character.” The Swiss Foreign Ministry has called on “the countries concerned to deal with this issue responsibly and contribute to the clarification of the criticisms in the report of the Council of Europe prepared by Dick Marty”. The report, which was prepared by Marty as the CoE’s special rapporteur, was leaked just as Thaci and his Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) won 12 December snap elections in Kosovo and claimed victory as prime minister. The report accuses the network of killing Serb prisoners for their kidneys, among other things, and identifies Thaci as “the boss” of the network, which began operations shortly before the 1999 war in Kosovo. Among other things, the report says Thaci has had “violent control” over the heroin trade for the past decade. The report says that Thaci’s links to organized crime began when his “Drenica Group” found itself the most influential faction with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK), and it was allegedly this position of power and influence that allowed him to seize control of criminal enterprises. “In confidential reports spanning more than a decade, agencies dedicated to combating drug smuggling in at least five countries have named Hashim Thaci and other members of his Drenica Group as having exerted violent control over the trade in heroin and other narcotics,” the report says.
A first-of-its-kind hijacking exercise involving the U.S., Canadian and Russian militaries went so well that a similar drill is planned for 2011, an American officer said. Jet fighters from Russia and the North American Aerospace Defense Command pursued a small passenger jet playing the role of a hijacked jetliner across the Pacific and back during the August exercise. The aim: To practice handing off responsibility for a hijacked jet between Russia and NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian command that for decades devoted its efforts to tracking Soviet forces. Officers reviewed the exercise in November at NORAD headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. The verdict: It "was pretty much carried on flawlessly," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Lee Haefner, who was the lead planner. NORAD and Russian officers will meet in Russia in February to begin planning a second exercise, Haefner said. Whether that comes off depends on what happens in U.S.-Russian relations and internal Russian politics, said Alexander Golts, a prominent military analyst in Moscow. The first hijacking exercise was initially planned for 2008 but was postponed when U.S.-Russian relations soured in the wake of Russia's war with Georgia. Russia could scuttle another exercise if its leaders are unhappy for any reason with western nations, Golts told The Associated Press in Moscow. Cooperation could also falter if Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev decide to take anti-West positions during the 2011 election campaign. "There's no doubt that this exercise can be the victim of anti-Western moods," Golts said. The fact that the first exercise happened at all is a sign that U.S.-Russian relations are slowly improving, said Kevin Ryan, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general who is research director for the Belfer Center at Harvard University's Kennedy School. "If things continue to improve, (future exercises) can actually by themselves begin to produce more trust and confidence between the militaries and afterward between the political leaders," Ryan said. Andrew Kuchins, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said the August exercise wasn't a "game-changer" but was important if Russia and the West want a working security agreement to combat hijackings or other acts of terrorism. "You have to actively do things concretely together and not have just a rhetorical security partnership," Kuchins said.
VII. STLOUISGLOBE - Orthodox Christians To Gather For Blessing Of Mississippi River January 6
Orthodox Christian clergy and faithful will gather on Thursday, January 6 at the Gateway Arch to bless the Mississippi River, participating in the ancient tradition of Blessing of the Waters on the Great Feast of Epiphany. Very Rev. Theophan Koja, president of the Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood of Greater St. Louis, and the pastor of St. Thomas Romanian Orthodox Church, will preside at the service, which begins at 1 p.m. After prayers for the blessing of the waters – and through them, all of Creation – the clergy and people will go in procession to the edge of the River, where Father Theophan will throw the Holy Cross into the water in commemoration of the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan. The feast of Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ. In the ancient Christian Church, the feast commemorated both the Nativity and the Baptism of Christ. As the celebration of the Nativity on December 25 as a distinct feast day spread gradually in the Christian world during the 4th and 5th centuries, different traditions developed regarding Epiphany: in the West, the focus was on the Adoration of the Christ Child by the Magi, while the Eastern Christians maintained the focus on Baptism of Christ. In Orthodox Christianity, the feast day is commonly known as Theophany (manifestation of God). The feast day is marked by the Blessing of Holy Water in the churches, and then gathering at a body of living water for an additional blessing. In many places (even very cold ones like Russia, where the ice has to be chopped away for the service), young men dive into the water to retrieve the Cross after it is thrown in. Safety concerns don’t allow for this practice in the Mississippi, but the practice of blessing the river’s water – and, by extension, all of Creation – remains a meaningful tradition among Orthodox Christians in St. Louis.