The Shin Bet security agency warned Israelis against answering unsolicited messages or sharing telephone numbers and other sensitive information over the internet. It said there have been numerous incidents recently in which violent groups tried to recruit Israelis through Facebook and other networking sites. "Terror organisations are using these sites to tempt Israelis to meet up in person in order to either abduct them, kill them or recruit them as spies." In recent years, militants have turned to the Internet to battle Israel. Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip have long been using Google Earth for better precision when firing rockets at southern Israeli cities.
Venezuela has become the 36th country to submit its opinion on Kosovo’s unilateral independence declaration to the International Court of Justice. Venezuela, which has not recognized Kosovo’s independence, later sent a written statement on its opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s independence declaration to the Hague Palace of Peace on April 24. Venezuela’s submission, along with the other 35, will be filed as confidential by the ICJ, and will not be available to the public at this stage. The opinions received by the Hague court came, in chronological order, from the Czech Republic, France, Cyprus, China, Switzerland, Romania, Albania, Austria, Egypt, Germany, Slovakia, Russia, Finland, Poland, Luxembourg, Libya, Great Britain, the United States of America, Serbia, Spain, Iran, Estonia, Norway, Holland, Slovenia, Latvia, Japan, Brazil, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Argentina, Azerbaijan, the Maldives, Sierra Leone and Bolivia. The ICJ will then look at those submissions and schedule a debate, where the sides in question will exchange verbal arguments. The court will then give its advisory opinion on the issue.
Alexander the Great was chosen as the greatest Greek of all time when the campaign to determine the grandest national figure concluded on Monday. The campaign ran for about a year as part of the “Great Greeks” series, co-organised by Sky and the BBC. Initially, 100 nominees from all fields of life, including arts, science, politics and sport, entered the running. In the last few months, the ten nominees were presented to Greek audiences through individual documentaries about them. Competing for the title with the ancient ruler were both other ancient characters and modern figures, such as Aristotle, Pericles, Plato, Eleftherios Venizelos, Kostas Karamanlis and Georgios Papanikolaou. Alexander the Great was declared the greatest Greek of all time, after he received 127,000 viewers’ votes.
Germany, Belgium and Breitain have returned hundreds of priceless artifacts to Greece, the oldest a 5th century coin, Greek Culture Ministry officials said Tuesday. Among the items retuned from Germany included 96 copper and ceramic pots and vessels, dating from the 3rd or 4th century BC from Thessaly, in northern Greece. The minister presented hundreds of fragments of pottery and copper coins dating from the 5th to 3rd century BC which were returned to Greece from Belgium. Samaras also unveiled a piece of marble, dating from the 11th or 12th century, taken from a Byzantine temple in the Ancient Agora by a British tourist in the 1950's. The marble fragment was returned recently to the Greek Embassy in London by a family member of the British tourist, saying they supported the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.
The U.S. regrets that Russia followed the South Ossetian separatists in walking out of the Geneva discussions on Georgia on May 18 during the introductory round of remarks. The U.S. also regrets the Abkhaz decision to boycott the talks from the start. The United States is dismayed by such behavior, which contravenes the spirit of the August 12 ceasefire brokered by French President Sarkozy as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1866, both of which call for talks to contribute to security and stability in Georgia. We hope the Russian delegation and South Ossetian and Abkhaz participants will attend the talks when they reconvene on May 19.
With court charges of corruption against President Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s conservative establishment opens a new front in what amounts to a form of trench warfare between the AK Party and its opponents. One way or another, a showdown of sorts appears to be approaching. You’re a Turkish patriot. You’re a hardline general, civil servant, judge or a militant nationalist politician. Like everyone you met at the cocktail party last night, you’re convinced Turkey’s AK Party government is turning your country into an Islamist state; backward, oppressive and isolated. So what can you do, you worried ranks? So, what’s new?
A couple in Syria is finding it hard to have their marriage legally recognized. He's Syrian, she's Armenian, but because of religious differences their union is not recognized by the law. In an ordinary suburb of Damascus lives an extraordinary couple. Tammam is Syrian, and Anna is Armenian. Together they spend their time making stop-motion cartoons. But to be different is not always better. Tammam is a Druze, a member of a small splinter religion. Anna is Christian Orthodox. In Syria, only a church can officially register a marriage. And religions can only marry within themselves: a Muslim may only marry a Muslim, a Christian another Christian, and a Druze another Druze. There is one loophole: a Muslim man may marry a woman of any religion. So, to get married, Tammam has to convert to Islam.