Asked at a news conference in Yalta about Saakashvili's visit to Kiev last week, the Russian leader, who is known for his sharp tongue, said that the Georgian leader and Ukraine's fiercely pro-Western president, Vikor Yuschenko, should meet wearing open-necked shirts. "The two presidents would be better off holding a dinner - if they are to hold it - without ties. Ties are pricey these days....Well, you understand what I mean," he said, eliciting laughter from officials and journalists. Putin was alluding to widely circulated video footage of Saakashvili with the tip of his tie ino his mouth, chewing on it as he waited to be interviewed last year. Putin, who was in Yalta for talks with the Ukranian prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, said that Yuschenko and Saakashvili would have much to talk about. Putin and Tymoshenko, who is a political rival of Yuschenko, were using their talks as an opportunity to demonstrate their strong relationship in the run-up to the presidential elections in January in which both Tymoshenko and Yushcenko will run. Neith Putin nor Tymoshenko made any mention of the Ukranian election on January 17, but the Russian prime minister said he felt comfortable working with his Ukrainian counterpart. "It's comfortable for us to work with the Tymoshenko government," he said. "During the time of our cooperation relations between Russia have become more stable and strenghthened." Tymoshenko agreed, saying that Russia and Ukraine have begun to build ties for years to come. "That is what our peoples want I believe: calm, worthy, pragmatic and equal cooperation....That is true freedom and true partnership." In August Putin's protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, disavowed doing business with Yuschenko, accusing him of pursuing "anti-Russian" policies.
Serbia has opened its biggest military base in a tense area near the boundary with Kosovo, amid protest by local ethnic Albanian leaders. Officials say the base will help secure peace and stability in the region which was the scene of an ethnic Albanian rebellion in 2000-2001. Some 1,000 troops will be based there. President Boris Tadic said during the opening ceremony Monday that the facility also will help boost the fight against rampant organized crime. Local ethnic Albanian leaders say stepping up military presence in the ethnically-mixed south of Serbia amounts to "militarization" and "occupation." The area has been tense since the 1998-99 war in Kosovo when a NATO bombing forced Serbia to pull out of the province. Kosovo declared independence last year.
Media reports citing unidentified senior sources in Brussels are claiming that the European Commission is to urge Athens and Skopje to come up with a solution to the dispute about the use of the name Macedonia by December 7 2009 – failing which Macedonia may find its hopes for an early start to EU membership talks receding. "The opening of negotiations with the Republic of Macedonia would substantively encourage the other countries in the region to further pursue pre-accession reforms and it will furthermore confirm the credibility of the EU’s enlargement policy," Milososki said in the letter. Media reports in Skopje said that on December 2, European Commission President Jose Barroso would tell Greek prime minister George Papandreou and Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski that they should make progress on solving the name dispute – and do so by December 7. On November 19, Macedonian daily Vecer said that Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, had called on Macedonia and Greece to start direct talks to solve the name dispute, Bulgarian news agency Focus reported. Until now, the dispute, which has endured since 1991, has been the subject of attempts by the United Nations through its mediator Matthew Nimetz to broker a deal. Meanwhile, media reports about statements by other figures have drawn reaction. A report that Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen had called for direct talks led to a statement from the alliance’s headquarters saying that the name issue was "absurd" but clearing it away remained a precondition for Macedonia to join the alliance. In 2008, Greece blocked the issuing of an invitation to Macedonia to join Nato, a move that has led Skopje to take court action against Athens, alleging a breach of a bilateral treaty. In Belgrade, there was fallout on November 19 after Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic told a news conference after meeting the Greek alternate foreign minister that Belgrade supported Athens in the name dispute. Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov, who was in Belgrade for the funeral of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s late Patriarch Pavle, withdrew from an official reception in protest against Jeremic’s statement, which had left him "deeply disappointed", Ivanov’s office said. In the hours afterward, Serbian president Boris Tadic, who hosted the reception, issued a statement jointly with Ivanov that said Serbia recognises Macedonia under that country’s constitutional name and this position was not going to change.
When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming. Barack Obama looked tired on Thursday, as he stood in the Blue House in Seoul, the official residence of the South Korean president. He also seemed irritable and even slightly forlorn. The CNN cameras had already been set up. But then Obama decided not to play along, and not to answer the question he had already been asked several times on his trip: what did he plan to take home with him? Instead, he simply said "thank you, guys," and disappeared. David Axelrod, senior advisor to the president, fielded the journalists' questions in the hallway of the Blue House instead, telling them that the public's expectations had been "too high." The mood in Obama's foreign policy team is tense following an extended Asia trip that produced no palpable results. The "first Pacific president," as Obama called himself, came as a friend and returned as a stranger. The Asians smiled but made no concessions. Upon taking office, Obama said that he wanted to listen to the world, promising respect instead of arrogance. But Obama's currency isn't as strong as he had believed. Everyone wants respect, but hardly anyone is willing to pay for it. Interests, not emotions, dominate the world of realpolitik. The Asia trip revealed the limits of Washington's new foreign policy: Although Obama did not lose face in China and Japan, he did appear to have lost some of his initial stature. The White House did not even stand up for itself when it came to the question of human rights in China. The president, who had said only a few days earlier that freedom of expression is a universal right, was coerced into attending a joint press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, at which questions were forbidden. Former US President George W. Bush had always managed to avoid such press conferences.
Since Attorney General Eric Holder announced the alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks would be tried in New York, there’s been much speculation about whether they’ll plead guilty, as some have suggested they would before military commissions, or insist on a trial and put on a defense. Scott Fenstermaker, a lawyer defending one of the men, told The Associated Press that they won’t deny their role, but will use the opportunity to “explain what happened and why they did it,” and they will provide “their assessment of foreign policy.” Fenstermaker reportedly met with his client, Ammar al Baluchi, a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), at the Guantanamo Bay prison last week. Baluchi told him the men had discussed the trial among themselves. Critics of the trial have complained, among other things, that KSM — who has boasted that he was the lead planner behind the 9/11 attacks, as well as many others — will use the opportunity to grandstand and spread terrorist propaganda. The alternative, however, would be to not allow them to speak at their own trial, which would hardly showcase the American principles of open government and fair trials that the attorney general presumably wants to highlight. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd told the AP on Sunday that he’s not worried that the men will dominate the trial or be able to use it as a vehicle to win new recruits. “We have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disruption, as federal courts have done in the past,” he said. The Southern District of New York, where the Justice Department wants to hold the trial, is the most experienced of all U.S. federal courts in handling major international terrorism cases.
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Cyril, made a statement considering the death of a priest Daniel Sysoev: I deeply grieve the tragic death of the murdered Priest Daniel Sysoev. Today, at the Divine Liturgy, I have prayed for his repose. I will continue to share, with his family and bereaved congregation, a prayer that the Lord would take his faithful servant to the celestial abode. My condolences to the mother and the children of Father Daniel, his parent - Priest Alexy, all family, friends, spiritual children and the flock of priest Daniel. Father Daniel was a zealous pastor, working much in the field of education and giving himself to the service of God and people. Many Orthodox Christians flowed to him with love, seeking spiritual guidance, inspiration of faith, and instructions for the right path. Any lawless deprivation of human life is a terrible sin, but the murder of a priest in the Church is also a challenge to God's law, desecrating the shrines given to us by the Lord himself. And this sin will not remain without God’s vengeance. I hope that human justice will prevail. However, while the names of the perpetrators are still unknown, I ask everyone to refrain from hasty accusations and harsh judgments against any persons or groups. The main thing that we all - arch pastors, pastors and faithful children of the church - must do today is to pray fervently for the repose of the soul of the murdered priest of God. Do not forget that we are called by the Lord to keep peace among ourselves, in the Church and in the society, so that atrocities like this do not sow anger and lawlessness in our hearts. In particular, I appeal today to our brothers and children in Christ. We all must keep firmly in our mind that the way to serve Christ and His Church is always сonnected with the confession of faith and even martyrdom. The tragic death of Father Daniel should not place in our hearts fear and faint-heartedness, and weaken our zeal in carrying out God’s work. We will firmly follow the path of Christ, for this is the way of victory over sin and evil, the way in which neither suffering nor death can stop us. + Cyril, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
Cyprus' Greek Orthodox church says it has sued Turkey for allegedly preventing worship at religious sites in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of the divided island. Church lawyer Simos Angelides said Monday the lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights concerns 520 churches, monasteries, chapels and cemeteries. He said the court's past rulings hold Turkey responsible for the north because it maintains 35,000 occupation troops there. Angelides said Orthodox Christian faithful cannot worship at those sites because they are either derelict or have been converted to mosques, army barracks, stables or nightclubs. He said Turkey committed "ethnic and religious cleansing" on Cyprus in 1974 when it invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece.