The White House escalated its offensive against Fox News on Sunday by urging other news organizations to stop "following Fox" and instead join the administration's attempt to marginalize the channel. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox." Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization."The White House stopped providing guests to 'Fox News Sunday' after Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was "something I've never seen a Sunday show do." "She criticized 'FOX News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check." Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente said: "Surprisingly, the White House continues to declare war on a news organization instead of focusing on the critical issues that Americans are concerned about like jobs, health care and two wars. The door remains open and we welcome a discussion about the facts behind the issues." Observers on both sides of the political aisle questioned the White House's decision to continue waging war on a news organization, saying the move carried significant political risks. Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said on CNN: "I don't always agree with the White House. And on this one here I would disagree." David Gergen, who has worked for Democratic and Republican presidents, said: "I totally agree with Donna Brazile." Gergen added that White House officials have "gotten themselves into a fight they don't necessarily want to be in. I don't think it's in their best interest." Media columnist David Carr of the New York Times warned that the White House war on Fox "may present a genuine problem for Mr. Obama, who took great pains during the campaign to depict himself as being above the fray of over-heated partisan squabbling." He added: "The administration, by deploying official resources against a troublesome media organization, seems to have brought a knife to a gunfight."
Pigs still can't fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor's office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won't need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic - and quality of life - will undoubtedly improve. The idea came from Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who is no stranger to playing God. In 2002, he spearheaded a project to reverse the flow of the vast River Ob through Siberia to help irrigate the country's parched Central Asian neighbors. The plan was unsurprisingly rubber-stamped this week by the Moscow City Council, which is dominated by Luzhkov's supporters. Then the city's Department of Housing and Public Works described how it would work. The air force will use cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide to spray the clouds from Nov. 15 to March 15 - and only to prevent "very big and serious snow" from falling on the city, said Andrei Tsybin, the head of the department. This could mean that a few flakes will manage to slip through the cracks. Tsybin estimated that the total cost of keeping the storms at bay would be $6 million this winter, roughly half the amount Moscow normally spends to clear the streets of snow. So far the main objection to the plan has come from Moscow's suburbs, which will likely be inundated with snow if the plan goes forward. Alla Kachan, the Moscow region's ecology minister, said the proposal still needs to be assessed by environmental experts and discussed with the people living in the area before Luzhkov can enact it. With only a few weeks left before winter comes, environmentalists will have to work fast to keep Luzhkov from implementing his zaniest plan to date - and to stop the first snowflakes from wafting down to the city streets.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, due to arrive in Belgrade tomorrow, says that he considers the visit to be very important. "Serious work is ahead to strengthen, through joint efforts, not only the foundation of our cooperation, but also to spur a better uncovering of its rich potential for the long term," said Medvedev. Addressing the issue of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians in February 2008 unilaterally declared secession that has been rejected both by Belgrade and Moscow, he told the newspaper that "no one must claim that the Kosovo issue has been solved, without Serbia having the last word". "Russia is taking part in the Kosovo settlement according to a formula that has been harmonized with our Serb colleagues a long time ago: Belgrade comes up with initiatives, and we consistently support it. Considering the complicated nature of the problem, this approach is proving to be efficient," he continued. "Despite all efforts by supporters of Kosovo's independence, they will not manage to present it as an irreversible process, to close the issue. We believe that it must be proven step by step that, after all, there is alternative to legal arbitrariness," the president was quoted as saying. He continued to state that "unfortunately, during the last decade, which has become critical in the history of solving the problem of Kosovo, many tragic mistakes were made, some of which were knowingly allowed to happen as part of a plan to introduce unilateral solutions to international practice."
Iran headed into new talks with world powers on its nuclear programme on Monday vowing to step up it uranium enrichment if it does not get what it wants from the negotiations. Iran is to hold talks at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on a proposal for Russia and France to enrich fuel for a research reactor. This would require Iran to hand over the uranium which many western nations say is being built up to develop a nuclear bomb. But before the talks with France, Russia, the United States and IAEA officials, Iran said it would carry on enriching uranium no matter what happens in Vienna. Iran Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Ali Shirzadian said the country will keep on enriching uranium up to the five percent level, the official IRNA news agency reported. "But if the negotiations do not yield the desired results, Iran will start enriching uranium to the 20 percent level for its Tehran reactor. It will never give up this right," the spokesman added. Shirzadian said the third-party enrichment deal was a "test" for the world powers. "This issue is a test for the Western powers to show how honest they are in their commitments," he said.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou arrives in Cyprus on Monday for a visit which is laden with emotion and symbolism. Papandreou made the Cyprus tour immediately after a parliament confidence vote, in a move aimed at regaining trust of all Greek Cypriot political forces. Papandreou's traditional good relations with the government and political parties in Cyprus cooled down and he fell out with the former Cyprus government after he expressed support for the so-called Annan plan. Close associates of Papandreou say that the purpose of the visit is two-fold: first, to fully restore his relations with all sides of the Greek Cypriot political spectrum, a prerequisite for his efforts to solve the Cyprus problem; second, he is also expected to draw plans with the Cyprus government both on the handling of the Cyprus issue and on future relations with Turkey. While addressing the Greek parliament last Friday, Papandreou said that he fully supports the initiatives by Cyprus President Christofias and will continue to have close ties with Cyprus, "not in words, but in deeds." Meanwhile, Papandreou has believed it is necessary to develop good relations with neighboring Turkey. Ties between Athens and Ankara have improved significantly in the past decade thanks to the joint efforts by Papandreou. Papandreou has said Athens welcomes Turkey's efforts to join the EU, albeit on the "self-evident and unyielding condition that Turkey incorporates the EU acquis, respects international law and contributes to a solution of the Cyprus issue." Cyprus has been divided since the Turkish military invaded in 1974.
The two couples had never met each other, and probably never would. They had come from opposite sides of a border between longtime enemies. But Elie Wakim and Nada Ghamloush from Lebanon, and Dimitri Stafeev and Olga Zaytseva from Israel, had a problem in common: Belonging to different religions, neither couple could get married in their home country, and had to fly to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to tie the knot. In the Middle East, civil marriage doesn't exist and no religious authority will perform an interfaith wedding. Lebanon and Israel are different in that they recognize civil marriages as long as they're performed abroad, and the closest venue abroad is Cyprus, 240 kilometres from Lebanon and 370 kilometres from Israel. So this little island, which claims to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, has made mixed marriages something of an industry. ts municipalities charge around $415 for express processing and $190 for others, while travel agencies in both Lebanon and Israel offer packages including travel, luxury hotel, marriage fees and flowers for the bride. Last year, by Cyprus government count, 523 couples from Lebanon and 1,533 from Israel were married here.
The International Joint Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogue opened last weekend on Cyprus. This time, the meeting focused on “the role of Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the 1st millennium,” the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations has reported on its website. The Russian Church offered the Joint Commission its critical commentaries even before the session opened. The Russian Church delegation chaired by the DECR head Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk participates in the session, which is to last till October 23. Commission held its previous session in October 2007 in Ravenna. Then, the Moscow Patriarchate delegation left the session as its members didn’t agree to participation of the so-called “Estonian Apostolic Church” established by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the Russian Church canonical territory in 1996. In the absence of the Russian Church representatives, the participants adopted a final document defining their joint view on the nature of rule in the Ecumenical Church. Later, commenting on the adopted document Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, spoke about "real breakthrough" in the dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics. However, the Russian Church didn’t share his optimism and reproached the Holy See for its attempts to impose Catholic model of administration with the Pope ruling on Orthodox world.