It is that time of the year once again – remembering the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, when the First World War finally came to an end. While this unfortunately did not bring about a total end to all wars, and the wars that came after it may be considered in more unspeakable terms that those who were there during World War I could probably not even begin to imagine, it is nevertheless a time that is worth commemorating. It is no longer a surprise, therefore, that all over America there were a lot of things – big and small – that were being done to remember those who have fought so valiantly in the name of America. In an elementary school in Kodiak, Alaska, young children were given homework on Tuesday afternoon — thank a veteran for the services they have rendered on Veteran’s Day, as recounted by a feature on the Kodiak Daily Mirror. It was a good thing that there were several of them on hand and available to thank in person – a good couple of dozen, all sons and daughters of Kodiak. They represented all five branches of the United States Armed Forces. On Veteran’s Day, First Lady Michelle Obama was at the George Washington University. Also there was Dr. Jill Biden, and together they helped launch Mission Serve, the new civilian-military initiative from Service Nation. During her speech, Mrs. Obama acknowledged the various sacrifices that our soldiers and their respective families have to endure in order to serve their country and their countrymen. She also acknowledged how the veterans who have left military life are equipped with skills that are very much needed by the civilian community, which invariably make them valuable assets to the community. Indeed, Veterans Day is great way of placing a spotlight on our soldiers and the lives that they lead. Remembering them, however, should not be confined to a single day. They need our constant support and remembrance as they lay their lives on the line for the good of the country.
The mystery over whether the military knew Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan was communicating with a radical Muslim imam lapsed into finger-pointing ahead of congressional investigations looking into the Army psychiatrist's contacts with any extremists. Two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record, said the Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and the imam overseas, and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force. The communications were gathered by investigators beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year. That defense investigator wrote up an assessment of Hasan after reviewing the communications and the Army major's personnel file, according to these officials. Meanwhile, a group of doctors overseeing Hasan's medical training discussed concerns about his overly zealous religious views and strange behavior months before the shooting, the Associated Press reported today. A military official familiar with discussions about Hasan says Hasan as a psychiatrist in training was belligerent, defensive and argumentative in his frequent discussions of his Muslim faith. The disclosure came as questions swirled about whether opportunities were missed to head off the massacre in which 13 died and 29 were wounded last Thursday - a familiar, early stage in the investigation of headline-grabbing crimes when public officials involved in a case often speak anonymously as they try to shift any blame to rivals in other agencies.
A proposal by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan foresees the transfer of a 122-strong Greek construction battalion (TESAF) from the northwestern province of Herat, which is considered relatively safe, to Farah, in the country’s west, which is the site of frequent suicide bombings by the Taliban, military sources have told Kathimerini. According to the same sources, the Greek Defense Ministry has said that it has not approved the transfer, noting that it was proposed when the previous conservative government had been in power. According to the proposal, reportedly put forward by Italian troops leading the ISAF effort in Herat, there are no more major construction projects for TESAF in the province and the Greek contingent’s contribution is needed in Farah. In the event that TESAF is transferred, the battalion would be be boosted with an additional 20 officers, bringing the total size of the contingent to 142. The project that TESAF would undertake in Farah, according to sources, would be the construction of a military camp for ISAF forces there, currently being accommodated in prefabricated buildings and other temporary accommodation. A parallel proposal by NATO for Greek troops to take over the management of Kabul’s international airport next March, as they did between December 2005 and March 2006, would result in the total number of Greek officers in Afghanistan increasing to 300. NATO’s new proposal reportedly foresees Greece taking over at the airport for a year rather than six months.
The UK would give up tracts of its military bases in Cyprus if reunification talks are successful, Gordon Brown said yesterday. After meeting President Dimitris Christofias, the Prime Minister urged the leaders of the divided Greek and Turkish populations to be "courageous" in efforts to secure a United Nations- brokered deal. He said: "An offer has been made to the United Nations to make available just under 50 per cent of the territory of the UK's Sovereign Base Areas to a unified Cyprus in the event of a solution. It will be up to the two leaders to negotiate what happens with this land. "Today, my message to Cyprus's leaders and to their people is: you can make history; be bold, be courageous; the UK will support you." The two base areas – Akrotiri and Dhekelia – were retained under UK jurisdiction when Cyprus was granted independence in 1960 but are military not "colonial" territories. They cover 98 square miles – which is 3 per cent of the Mediterranean island's total land area – but around 60 per cent of that is privately-owned and around 7,000 Cypriots live within them. The Foreign Office said the base areas, which are entirely military, would be able to function as normal within the reduced land area. RAF Akrotiri, an air base on the southern coast, has acted as a key staging post for British forces en route to the Gulf and elsewhere in the region.
Gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for northern Somalia said Thursday. Mohamed Said Samatar said three men were arrested Thursday over the killing of High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware. In addition to jailing suspected pirates, Aware also recently jailed four members of Somalia's Islamic insurgency. Eyewitness Mohamud Dahir said masked men with pistols shot the judge in the head and chest several times as he left a mosque Wednesday evening in the port city of Bossaso. "These gangs hate him for his justice. We suspect one of them may have something to do with his assassination," said Aware's cousin, Abdulahi Jama. Aware was also a member of Puntland's Supreme Judicial Council, which supervises the judiciary and nominates senior judicial officials. Samatar says Puntland legislator Ibrahim Ilmi Warsame was also shot dead Wednesday as he sat in a restaurant with friends. It was not immediately clear if the killings were linked. Somalia has not had an effective central government for 18 years, although Puntland has set up a semiautonomous government and the northern region of Somaliland has declared its independence. Warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, plunging Somalia into chaos and anarchy.
A religion analyst says that when it comes to the Vatican, "the important issues for Serbia are European integrations". Živica Tucić spoke for B92 as President Boris Tadić is in Rome, where he will, among others, meet with the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI. Tucić listed that church's position toward Kosovo's status and a "sort of a benevolent stance" of Catholic countries toward Serbia as other important issues. “I think that Tadić should invite the pope to visit Serbia without setting a precise date,” he pointed out. The analyst stressed that there were about five percent of Catholics living in Serbia and that they had the right to receive a visit from their religious leader. The Vatican, as an important subject of international law, "has its expectations from Serbia", he continued. Tucić continued to say that Vatican's refusal to recognize Kosovo "did not have much influence in the Catholic countries, because every each decided about its foreign policy". “The reasons why the Vatican did not recognize Kosovo have more to do with inter-church relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Christianity in general. In any case, it is a good thing and Serbia considers it a great gesture from Vatican, and should appreciate it” said he.
Relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are improving and a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, may be on the cards, a Russian Orthodox bishop said. "Today it can be said that we are moving to a moment when it becomes possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow," Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, told reporters in Moscow. "There are no specific plans for the venue or timing of such a meeting but on both sides there is a desire to prepare it," the Archbishop said. Preparations for such a meeting must involve finding "a common platform on all remaining points of dispute," the Archbishop said. One such issue are relations between the Uniate community and Orthodox believers in Ukraine. In the early 1990s, "the fragile interdenominational balance was upset and a serious situation took shape that still exists," Archbishop Hilarion said. At the same time, conversion of Orthodox believers into Catholicism is less of a problem today than it was a decade ago, he said. Benedict XVI is "a very reserved, traditional man who does not seek the expansion of the Catholic Church to traditionally Orthodox regions," the Archbishop said. When Benedict XVI, shortly after being elected Pope, met with Metropolitan Kirill (the present Russian Patriarch, then head of the DECR), a papal visit to Russia "was taken off the agenda as now it appears to us to be impossible," the bishop said. After Metropolitan Kirill has been elected Patriarch, "one can hope for further steps" in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue because the Patriarch "will continue the line on relations with Christians of other denominations that he pursued as part of his former activities," the Archbishop said.