Each year the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Nazi hunter, publishes a list of its most wanted surviving Nazi suspects. They are “wanted” because they have not been punished, even if they have been tried. In some cases it is unclear whether they are still alive. The 2009 version of list includes: IVAN (JOHN) DEMJANJUK: Accused in 1977 of being the infamous “Ivan the Terrible”, a Treblinka extermination camp guard, he was extradited to Israel and sentenced to death, then freed on subsequent evidence. He returned to the United States in 1993 but his citizenship was revoked in 2002 after a court convicted him of working at three other camps. He was extradited to Germany in May 2009 to stand trial in Munich. HEINRICH BOERE: Accused of killing three Dutch civilians in 1944 as a member of an SS hit squad that targeted anti-Nazi resistance fighters, Boere confessed after being captured by U.S. forces. Escaping to Germany, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Holland in 1949. After refusing a 1980 Dutch extradition request, a German court indicted him in April 2008. Boere went on trial in Aachen on Oct. 31. DR SANDOR KEPIRO: Serbia's war crimes prosecutor in 2008 requested an investigation into the Hungarian suspected of committing genocide against Jews and Serbs in World War II. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 1944; that verdict, and his acquittal later the same year came when Hungary was under fascist rule and an ally of Nazi Germany. In 2007, 95-year-old Kepiro was questioned about allegedly relaying orders to his militias who killed four civilians in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 1942. MILIVOJ ASNER: Alleged to have been a senior security official during the 1941-45 rule of Croatia's pro-Nazi Ustasha regime, Asner says he ordered wartime deportations of Jews and Serbs to their homelands, not to death camps in Croatia. Asner moved to Austria when a Nazi-tracking group found him living in Croatia in 2005. Austria previously rejected a Croatian extradition request on grounds that Asner's physical and mental condition was fragile. SOEREN KAM: The Danish-born former SS member is accused of helping Nazi forces in Denmark and of the 1943 murder of anti-Nazi Danish journalist Carl Henrik Clemmensen in Copenhagen. Kam fled to Germany after the war, obtaining German citizenship in 1956. Following his 2006 arrest, a German court delayed a decision on his extradition to Denmark. KLAAS CARL FABER: Accused of serving in the German Security Service in Holland, he was sentenced to death in Holland for murders of prisoners of Westerbork transit camp and Groningen prison in 1944; the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1948. He escaped from prison to Germany in 1952. In July 2009 it was reported that Berlin might want to prosecute Faber after all. KAROLY ZENTAI: Zentai is accused of killing Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest. He is also accused of taking part in "manhunts, persecution, deportation and murder of Jews. He immigrated to Australia in the early 1950s and was arrested by Federal Police in July 2005. An Australia court ruled that he was eligible for extradition to Hungary and the government approved the extradition on Nov. 12. MIKHAIL GORSHKOW: Alleged to have been an interrogator for the Gestapo, he is accused of helping kill about 3,000 men, women and children in the Slutsk ghetto in Minsk, Belarus. Estonian-born Gorshkow became a U.S. citizen in 1953 but was denaturalized in 2002 and is under investigation in Estonia. ALGIMANTAS DAILIDE: Dailide volunteered for Lithuania's Nazi-backed secret police, the Saugumas, but said he was only a humble clerk. Entering the United States in 1950, he worked as a real estate agent. In March 2006 Lithuania convicted the then 86-year-old of handing over Jews attempting to flee from the Vilnius ghetto. A Lithuanian court sentenced him to five years in jail, but suspended his sentence due to his health. HARRY MANNIL: The Caracas-based car sales millionaire and member of Venezuelan high society is accused – but denies – arresting Jews and communists who were later executed by the Nazis. Cleared of the accusations by Estonia, he remains on a U.S. watch list barring him from entering the country. Two further people accused by Nazi hunters, but thought likely to be dead: ALOIS BRUNNER: Right-hand man to the Gestapo's “technician of death” Adolf Eichmann, he helped organize deportations of Jews to death camps and would probably top the Center's list of most-wanted Nazi criminals if it did not think the chances of his still being alive to be slim. ARIBERT HEIM: Heim killed hundreds at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria with injections of poison and removed organs from victims without anesthetic. He was reported in February to have died in Cairo in 1992, aged 78. However the Center says that without conclusive forensic proof of his death, it is still not possible to close his case.
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad last year had a taste of his own medicine Tuesday when he nearly got beaned by a shoe thrower at a news conference in Paris. Muntadhar al-Zeidi ducked and the shoe hit the wall behind him. The identity of the new shoe-thrower — and his motivation — weren't immediately clear, but he appeared to be an Iraqi. It was not known if the intruder was a journalist or just pretended to be one to attend the news conference at a center for foreign reporters. Whatever his motive, the confrontation didn't stop there. Al-Zeidi's brother, Maithan, chased the attacker in the audience and — what else? — pelted him with a shoe as he left the room.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Israel could not do a "damn thing" to stop the Islamic state's nuclear program, which the West suspects is a front to build bombs. "The Zionist regime (Israel) and its (western) backers cannot do a damn thing to stop Iran's nuclear work," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the central city of Isfahan. Ahmadinejad rejected on Wednesday as "illegal" a UN nuclear watchdog resolution over the country's disputed nuclear activities, state television reported. "Under pressure of a few superficially powerful countries ... the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed an illegal resolution against the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the central city of Isfahan. The IAEA passed a resolution on Friday censuring Iran for covertly constructing a second enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, in addition to its IAEA-monitored one at Natanz, and demanding a construction halt. Tehran said on Sunday it would build 10 more uranium enrichment sites in retaliation for the resolution, which sailed through with unusual Russian and Chinese support. Ahmadinejad says Iran will enrich its uranium to a higher level in direct contravention to an international call to halt the process. Ahmadinejad added that international sanctions over the Islamic Republic's nuclear work would have no effect and any aggression against the Islamic state would be regretted. "Sanctions will have no effect. Aggressors will regret their action as soon as they put their finger on the trigger," he said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Russia erred last week when it voted for the U.N. nuclear watchdog's resolution rebuking Iran for its nuclear activities. Ahmadinejad, during a TV interview Tuesday, also criticized the West for double standards and called the contention that Iran is isolating itself "ridiculous." He repeated Iran's position that the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution has no legal basis and said the issue over Iran's nuclear program has become politicized. "Some people were deceived. I think Russia made a mistake," he said, asserting it didn't have a proper "analysis" of the issue. He didn't elaborate on that. Twenty-five of the 35 countries with representatives on the IAEA board of governors voted for the resolution, which also called for Iran to suspend its construction of the newly disclosed Qom nuclear facility. Ahmadinejad said Britain and Israel sabotaged the talks in Geneva, Switzerland, that led to the vote. Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has been involved in the negotiations with Iran over the nuclear issue -- along with Germany and the other permanent members: France, Britain, the United States and China. Russia hasn't always sided with other nations on how to approach the problem. Three countries opposed the resolution -- Cuba, Malaysia and Venezuela. Six countries abstained and another was absent. The Iranian president said any sanctions would have minimal effect and said world powers wouldn't think about launching an attack on the country. Ahmadinejad also indicated he is disappointed with President Barack Obama's performance and he discussed his recent trip to Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Senegal, and Gambia -- a journey he hailed as successful. He didn't make any reference to the case of five British sailors held by Tehran since November 25.
Prime Minister George Papandreou met with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 17th OSCE ministerial council in Athens, with both side citing closer cooperation in the bilateral, regional and international level as well as within the framework of the EU. Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas also attended the meeting, which was reportedly held in an excellent atmosphere, while he later stated that the goal is to continue the cooperation established in the period of 1999-2004. "We have agreed on cooperation by the two sides for the sake of mutual benefit as well as for the benefit of the entire SE Europe (region). This spirit of cooperation sends out a message that Greece and Turkey can work together. It's worth the effort. It is a message of peace," Droutsas stressed. According to the Greek alternate FM, the Turkish side spoke positively of the Papandreou's target for the EU integration of the western Balkans in 2014, while the Turkish FM confirmed Erdogan's intent for closer bilateral cooperation. Regarding Greek-Turkish cooperation within the framework of the Union, the Greek side expressed support to Turkey's European course, adding that "we underlined that the obligations towards member-states should be implemented; the EU course should proceed and this will help in Greek-Turkish rapprochement." Referring to the discussion made on the Cyprus issue, Droutsas said the "Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots should be able to negotiate freely and contribute in the most effective way in the continuation of the process." Referring to the practical support of Turkey's EU accession course, Droutsas said Greece is willing to offer technical support as it has done in the past with a joint working group. On a bilateral level, Droutsas underlined the need to promote the delineation of the continental shelf in the Aegean through exploratory contacts and expressed an expectation that the issue can be settled quickly through the International Court in The Hague, if necessary. The Turkish side expressed its intent to develop a multiple cooperation model with Greece in sectors such as transport, health, economic ties and environmental protection. "This is being considered, we are still in the beginning of this discussion," Droutsas pointed out.
Federal authorities in Colorado are reviewing a 2002 file on a Muslim cleric who communicated with the shooting suspect at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver confirmed Tuesday that it has some record of Anwar al-Awlaki. An official won't confirm a report by ABC News that the file is about a felony warrant issued on a passport fraud charge but then revoked by the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office. Al-Awlaki is a New Mexico native who graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. In 2002, he moved to Yemen, where he is at large. The imam was reportedly corresponding by e-mail with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood last month.
Letter by +Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes, President of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund USA: Beloved in Christ our Lord, May the peace of God that passeth understanding be with you always! Once again I must appeal to you on behalf of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund USA and for the sake of our struggling brothers and sisters in Kosovo/Metohija. The children of the region are freezing when they are at school. Indeed, the children are now cold all the time, since only some of the classrooms even have wood stoves. There is no high tech central heating system for them as we are accustomed to having in the schools our American children attend. Back in late January and early February of last year (2006), I visited the region in my role as president of the Decani Fund. Some of the schools I visited were in unheated buildings! In one school I visited with Bishop Teodosije, we met together with the teachers in one of the classrooms. During that meeting, the room was intensely cold; we all felt we were freezing! Elsewhere, in a classroom that was heated, the only source was a wood stove. When the children went outside for recess, they were each asked to bring in a log to add to the stove. When the supply of firewood was exhausted, that classroom too would go unheated. The schools are allotted some firewood by the Kosovo Coordination Center (run by the Republic of Serbia). When this is used up, the children must return to attending to their studies in icy cold classrooms. This situation is so common that these children have grown accustomed to being cold. One must wonder, though, what effect such conditions have on their ability to learn and on their teachers ability to teach. We cannot even imagine such conditions in our own children's schools! But the situation for Kosovo's Serbian children is even worse than a lack of heat in the schools they attend. Some of these schools do not have electricity either. The children must arrive late and leave early-- they can have classes only during the daylight hours. When the Decani Monastery fathers learned that there won't be enough firewood available to supply the region's schools for the entire winter, they've rushed to assist the schools by procuring additional supplies of wood through the Decani Monastery Relief Fund. Because of past years' experience with this ongoing situation, they now keep in contact with these schools, anticipating that they will have to assist them when they run out of firewood or encounter other problems. At this hour, beloved in Christ our Lord, let us act together to keep the children warm in their classrooms. With Christian love, let us assist them to have both heat and electric lighting in their schools so that the time they spend there will be productive and conducive to real learning. The schools, like many of the families in the area, cannot afford sufficient firewood or electric power. Children return to unheated homes from unheated schools, to homes where the only illumination comes from candles or lanterns. Life in Kosovo/Metohija has regressed to a primitive level for many of the remaining Serbian citizens. Even worse conditions would ensue if it were not for the armed guards and tank patrols that surround the schools and give some measure of safety to the children at least while they are there. Please remember, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that for Christians, charitable works are not an option, they are a mandate. We live to be servants of our Lord and we serve Him by serving each other and all others. Christ Himself commands us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to take care of the poor and needy among us. In Christ we are one body, one family. As one family, all the children are our children, all the people are our brothers and sisters. The Decani Monastery Relief Fund exists to carry out that mandate in Kosovo/Metohija. Let us also rise to the call and help them provide assistance to alleviate the bitter cold and darkness these young children must face in their schools and in their homes. Let us warm them, our children, with both our charity and with our ceaseless prayers. Please send your donation, designated to be used to provide Firewood for Schools in Kosovo by clicking here.