French carmaker Citroen has apologised after publishing a map in which it redrew the borders of Balkan nations that fought wars in the early 1990s, Bosnia said Wednesday. Citroen managing director Frederic Banzet sent the Bosnian embassy in Paris a letter expressing regret at the publication which appeared in the company's promotional material, Bosnia's foreign ministry said. "Banzet informed the embassy... that he has stopped distribution of the material and ordered the destruction of the remaining copies," it said in a statement. The apology came after Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro sent protest letters to Citroen this month after the map merged Bosnia into Serbia and Croatia, Montenegro into Serbia and gave Slovenia a large slice of Croatia. The issue is sensitive in the Balkans as Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman, the late presidents of Serbia and Croatia, are widely thought to have made a secret pact to divide Bosnia between their ex-Yugoslav republics. Bosnia's 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war was the bloodiest of the series of conflicts that broke up the six-republic communist federation, costing at least 100,000 lives.
After the second round of submission of opinions of self-proclaimed independence of Kosmet has been completed in the International Court of Justice and after those opinions have been read out, the general stand of the international legal public is that Serbia’s arguments are superior, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said. Now we are in the preparatory stage for a public debate due in six to nine months, for which some 30 countries have applied, he told RTS. We have reason for optimism, he said, assessing this as legal proceedings of the century, which is to bear huge significance for the entire international legal system. As the highest UN judicial instance, the ICJ will for the first time in history discuss the legality of a unilaterally proclaimed secession and the decision to be made will be able to apply to all subsequent cases. Some influential countries have lately drastically increased pressure on countries that have not recognized indepedence of Komet yet, he said, adding the sides in this battle are not equally powerful, but that justice and law are on Serbia’s side and Serbia will continue fighting for the respect of the basic norms of the international law.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday made light of the growing polemics surrounding his personal life, including allegations that a paid escort spent the night at his Rome residence, telling an audience, “I’m not a saint.” Mr. Berlusconi, 72, has been on the defensive since May, when his wife, Veronica Lario, said she was divorcing him, accusing him of cavorting with very young women and calling him “unwell.” In recent weeks, several women have come forward saying they had been paid to attend parties at his official Rome residence and his villa in Sardinia. This week the heat rose a few more degrees, when the center-left daily La Repubblica and its affiliated newsweekly, L’Espresso, published what they said were audio recordings and transcripts of conversations between Mr. Berlusconi and a female escort who said she spent the night at his official Rome residence. “I’m not a saint. You’ve understood that. Let’s hope that the people at La Repubblica understand that, too,” Mr. Berlusconi said, the Italian news media reported. Mr. Berlusconi, who still governs virtually unopposed, has said his left-wing opponents are attacking his personal life because they have no political ground on which to attack him.
Macedonia's PM has proposed a "2-tier formula“ for solving the Macedonian “name“ dispute: one name in communications with Greece, another for all other states. “Greece wants the name ’Republic of Macedonia’ erased from constitutional and personal documents, and shows neither understanding nor a desire to discuss the Macedonian people and language,“ said Nikola Gruevski. “In that situation, the ’two-tier formula’ would mean one name in communications with Greece, while the constitutional name of our country would apply to all other states,“ he said. Bakoyannis refused to comment or issue a statement following the Macedonian prime minister’s latest proposal on a “two-tier formula“ that could settle this thorny issue, which continues to hamper bilateral relations between the two countries. “Gruevski’s views show that he hasn’t grasped the international community’s message, which is loud and clear—for his country’s Euro-Atlantic course and his people, a mutually acceptable solution needs to be found, an agreed name that geographically reflects reality,“ she said. Greece, which refuses to recognize Macedonia under its constitutional name, arguing that it connotes territorial claims to Greece’s own province of the same name, has blocked Skopje’s further EU integration until the dispute is settled. Macedonia sits at the UN under the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged Israel to freeze all forms of settlement activity, adding increasing international pressure following a call from the United States earlier this week to cease construction in East Jerusalem. "I urge the government of Israel to commit fully to its obligations, including to freeze settlement activity and natural growth," said Ban in a message to a United Nations meeting in Geneva on the Middle East. "If Israel continues settlement activity, it will not only be acting contrary to international law but also to a strong international consensus," he said. Benjamin Netanyahu said the following day that Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem was "indisputable" and that he would not allow citizens to be forbidden property purchases in any part of the city. In his message on Wednesday, Ban said that an agreement by Israel to freeze settlement activity would "facilitate a new environment of cooperation and common purpose from the countries in the region." The international community considers Jewish neighborhoods in the east of the city to be settlements and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Israel regards communities in East Jerusalem, annexed during the 1967 Six-Day war, to be a legitimate part of the state and views with distinction that area from the West Bank. The U.S., on the other hand, claims it has made clear to Netanyahu that it sees East Jerusalem as an issue that should be left to "permanent status" negotiations, and has said any activity there could prejudice a final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Increasing numbers of non-Muslims are turning to Sharia courts to resolve commercial disputes and other civil matters, The Times has learnt. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) said that 5 per cent of its cases involved non-Muslims who were using the courts because they were less cumbersome and more informal than the English legal system. The tribunal had adjudicated on at least 20 cases involving non-Muslims so far this year. The rulings of the tribunal are legally binding, provided that both parties agree to that condition at the beginning of any hearing. Anti-Sharia campaigners, who claim that the Islamic system is radical and biased against women, expressed alarm at the news. The Times has also learnt that the MAT is planning to triple the number of its courts by setting up in ten new British cities by the end of the year. It will expand its network further by acting as an advisory body to dozens of other Islamic courts, with the intention of achieving national consensus over rulings and procedures. Although Sharia courts have been operating in the civil jurisdiction since the early 1980s, they have been doing so only in the shadows and in an ad-hoc fashion. if the MAT was successful in bringing a number of the existing councils into line with its own courts, it would in effect create Britain’s largest national co-operative of tribunals.
‘Every aspect of a non-Muslim is unclean,” proclaimed Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. He explained that non-Muslims rank between “feces” and “the sweat of a camel that has consumed impure food.” Other prominent ayatollahs, including Ahmad Jannati, the current chairman of the Guardian Council, have made similar utterances. Thus Iran’s Zoroastrians, Jews, Mandeans, Christians, and Bahais are subordinated and indeed treated as a fifth column by the revolutionary Islamic Republic. No matter that most of these religious groups were established in Iran before Islam arrived there; none are accepted by Iran’s Shiite rulers as fully Iranian. With the recent controversial presidential election, the scapegoating of non-Muslims as agents of the United States, Israel, Britain, and the deposed monarchy reached new heights. Seven Bahai leaders and two Christian converts are in prison and will soon be put on trial for their lives, while other non-Muslims are suffering intensified government repression. Non-Muslim communities collectively have diminished to no more than 2 percent of Iran’s 71 million people. Forty years ago, under the Shah, a visitor would have seen a relatively tolerant society. Iran now appears to be in the final stages of religious cleansing. Pervasive discrimination, intimidation, and harassment have prompted non-Muslims to flee in disproportionately high numbers. Converts from Islam to any other faith are regarded by the state as apostates who can be put to death. Iran bans non-Muslims not only from proselytizing but from most public religious expression in the presence of Muslims.