Middle East

Vatican returns relics of saints to Istanbul in bid to heal rift

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II, in a gesture of friendship with the Orthodox Church, on Saturday handed over the bones of two early Christian saints that were brought to Rome from ancient Constantinople centuries ago.

The Vatican said the return of the saints' relics was part of the pope's efforts to promote Christian unity and dismissed any suggestion that John Paul was "asking pardon" for their removal by Crusaders from the seat of the Orthodox Church.

The pope sat beside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, in St. Peter's Basilica as the bones of the saints, resting on yellow velvet in crystal and alabaster reliquaries, were brought to the altar.

While a choir sang in Greek and Latin, the two religious leaders blessed the relics, before the reliquaries were carried away on biers by Vatican ushers in dark suits acting as pallbearers.

The Vatican is retaining a small part of the relics.

During a visit to the Vatican in June, the Orthodox leader had sought the return of the relics of Patriarchs John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen, who were archbishops long before the split between the eastern and western churches nearly 1,000 years ago.

In remarks read for him by an aide, the frail pontiff called it a "blessed occasion to purify our wounded memories" and to "strengthen our path of reconciliation."

"I will never tire" in efforts to achieve it, the pope said.

Bartholomew, speaking next, said the handover repaired "an anomaly" and "ecclesiastical injustice" and that it was a sign that there are no "insurmountable problems in the Church of Christ."

The Orthodox leader, speaking in Italian, said the gesture also served as an example to those holding religious treasures sought by others.

A religious service attended by Orthodox and Catholic clerics was to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, later Saturday to mark the relics' return to the city that was formerly the Greek Orthodox Byzantine capital, Constantinople.

Bartholomew and John Paul have both emphasized reconciliation between their churches, which split in 1054 over the growing power of the papacy.

The Orthodox say the relics were removed from Constantinople when Crusaders sacked the city in 1204.

The Vatican, however, says the bones of one of the saints, Gregory, were brought to Rome by Byzantine monks in the 8th century.

In a statement issued Saturday, papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls emphasized that Gregory's remains were brought to Rome in the earlier century and denied that the pope was seeking pardon for the removal of the saints' remains.

"Without negating the tragic events of the XIII century," Navarro-Valls said, the gesture was intended to promote unity between Catholics and Orthodox.

The remains have been kept in St. Peter's Basilica.

In 2001, John Paul apologized for Roman Catholic involvement in the Constantinople siege.

The pope has made reconciliation among the divided Christian churches one of the major themes of his papacy, but progress has been limited.

In August, he sent to Moscow an icon dear to Russian Orthodox believers.

John Paul has also apologized for sins committed by Catholics against other Christians.

In recent years, however, new strains have arisen.

The Russian Orthodox Church has accused the Vatican of poaching for converts in traditional Orthodox territory, a charge the Vatican firmly denies.

The ordination of women priests in Protestant churches and the recent ordination of a gay bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church have raised new problems with Rome.

The Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire ultimately collapsed when the Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered the city in 1453, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate remained in the city.

Bartholomew is considered "first among equals" among Orthodox patriarchs and directly controls several Greek Orthodox churches around the world. 27 November 2004. BDWN

Chavez is due in Tehran Saturday

Tehran, Nov 27 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will arrive in Tehran this evening, it was announced on Saturday.

He visited Spain, Libya and Russia ahead of Iran and is scheduled to go to Qatar afterwards.

President Mohammad Khatami is expected to formally welcome President Chavez at Saadabad cultural-historical complex on Sunday.

Chavez has already paid visit to Iran and is scheduled to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart on ways to develop Tehran-Caracas relations.

During President Chavez's stay in Tehran, a ceremony will be held to unveil the statue of Simon Bolivar and naming a street after Bolivar.

Simon Bolivar is Venezuelan leader in early seventeenth century and his birthday (July 24) is national holiday in the country.

Venezuela was a Spanish colony from 1499 until 1621 and under the leadership of Simon Bolivar it achieved independence in 1630. 27 November 2004. BDWN

IDF troops arrest Hamas man involved in murder of two Israelis

Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the West Bank on Saturday arrested Hamas militant Amin Shakirat, who masterminded the murder of two Israeli security guards near Abu Dis in November 2003.

The troops conducted searches in the vicinity of Sawahara, in the West Bank, based on intelligence information received, and found the Hamas man hiding in the kitchen in his home. 27 November 2004. BDWN

Atlanta Area Man Killed In Iraq

A civilian from Dunwoody has been killed in Iraq.

Jim Mollen, 48, came under heavy fire Wednesday when he drove a vehicle outside Baghdad's protected Green Zone.

Mollen, who formerly worked in IT at Coca-Cola, was the U-S Embassy's senior consultant to the Iraqi ministers of education. He was helping rebuild Iraq's universities and other educational institutions.

His brother, Tim Mollen, says his death came just a week before he was scheduled to leave Iraq. 27 November 2004. BDWN

Militants still holed up in Arafat's compound

Israel's most wanted a wild card in Palestinian future

By Ron Allen
Correspondent
NBC News
Nov. 27, 2004

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Under the cover of darkness, and past a line of armed guards, lay the crumbling walls of Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters. Inside waited Khaled Shaweesh, a Palestinian militant who is among the most wanted men by Israel in the West Bank.

"I am one of the al-Aqsa Brigrade leaders," Shaweesh said recently, referring to the military faction that's part of Arafat's Fatah party. It's one of several groups behind the current intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

Shaweesh added somewhat boastfully, "I am the oldest, and I've been wanted by Israel the longest."

Shaweesh is just one fighter among perhaps thousands in the occupied territories. They wield significant power now as new moderate Palestinian leaders restart peace talks with Israel and the United States, try to stop the violence, and move on to a new era after Arafat's death. But, the militants role in the future of Palestine remains uncertain.

Staying put for now

At times, while Arafat himself was holed up in the compound, he denied that any other wanted men were inside, and Israeli troops maintained their siege. Since Arafat's death, many others have fled, but not Shaweesh.

Israeli officials wouldn't confirm Shaweesh's self-ranking as the militant they’ve wanted the longest. But they do say he's was a senior figure in Arafat's personal security force. They say he planned ambushes, developed explosives and is accused of personally killing at least six Israelis.

Shaweesh said, almost bragging about it, that he was among the fighters who came up with the idea of using female suicide bombers. Women, they reasoned, could more easily get by Israeli security forces.

"To respect Arafat, we must continue the resistance," he vowed. "We will attack the Israelis if they continue attacking us."

He wore faded military fatigues. He sat in small chair with his back supported by the wall. Shaweesh is paralyzed from the waist down. He said he still has nine Israeli bullets inside his body and his arm bears a long jagged scar. He lifted his shirt to show one wound still oozing blood from a recent wound. His room was once was a prison cell, but now it looked more like a dorm room.

"I was a soldier and I am still a soldier," he insisted. "Despite the wounds in my body I will continue fighting."

Shaweesh has been in the compound for two years. He fled here after a gun battle with Israeli troops and Arafat sheltered him along with perhaps 20 other militants.

Power of militants uncertain

Israel, to date, has refrained from storming the Ramallah compound as both sides, with prodding from the international community, take steps to ease tension ahead of expected Palestinian elections on Jan. 9.

"The first challenge is to impose the authority of the new government over these organizations," said Alon Ben David, an Israeli security analyst, referring to the various militant groups.

For now, it's a waiting game.

"Currently, I see Israel showing some restraint, " said Ben David. "They don't want to appear as the ones that are destroying the chances of Abbas forming a stable government."

So Shaweesh remains in hiding, but still free.

Eerie place

He insists he feels safe and protected, but there was very little visible security. It's a bombed out shell of a building with no running water, and little electricity.

Sympathetic neighbors deliver food and water to the people that are still there. In one area, where the exterior wall was blown away, it's possible to look into several floors and rooms of the building. A tub sat in what once was a bathroom.

A few residents there smoked and gazed out into the night, perhaps wondering when yet another Israeli air assault would come. And those here have no illusions another assault will come.

It was an eerie place, with much going on out of sight. It was nothing like the ceremonial and formal site during the day and evening when countless mourners made their way to see Arafat's tomb.

Shaweesh said he plans to support the new government, "because it was created by Arafat."

"If they're going to build on Arafat's achievements, dreams and wishes, we will help the new government do whatever they want to do." Left unclear and vague is exactly what Shaweesh and other hardliners here expect the new government to do.

For that reason, they remain a dangerous wildcard during the transition after Arafat's death, and beyond.

Ron Allen is an NBC News correspondent. He was on assignment in Cairo and Ramallah during Yasser Arafat's funeral and burial. 27 November 2004. BDWN

US seizes nine insurgent suspects south of Baghdad

27 November 2004

NEAR LATIFIYA, Iraq - US and Iraqi forces seized nine suspected insurgents in overnight raids on the lawless town of Latifiya, south of Baghdad, US officers said on Saturday.

It was the latest in a series of operations codenamed Operation Plymouth Rock, launched four days ago by US Marines in a cluster of towns along the Euphrates river that have become popularly known as the “triangle of death”.

Iraqi police commandos from the nearby city of Hilla formed the bulk of the 200-strong force in six raids in Latifiya coordinated by the Marines, Captain Tad Douglas told reporters at the headquarters of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

“We got nine detainees,” Douglas said after returning from the mission at Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad. A seized computer would also be analyzed by intelligence officers.

The suspects put up no resistance and there was no fighting, Douglas said -- typical of the operations conducted in the area recently, which follow the all-out US assault on the rebel Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah, upstream to the northwest.

The area around Latifiya has become a byword for danger to travelers on the main highways south from the capital. Bombs and ambushes have killed US and Iraqi security forces, while foreign civilians have also been killed and kidnapped.

US commanders say supporters of Saddam Hussein’s former Baath party form a hard core of up to 600 insurgents in the area, which was the center of the Iraqi arms industry and a base for an elite unit of the Republican Guard. From four to 10 times as many may be making guerrilla attacks, officers say.

The population of the Marines’ area in the north of Babylon province, stretching south from Baghdad, is about 1.2 million.

Between 200 and 500 fighters may have come to the area from Fallujah, some of them returning to their homes, before the US offensive there, a Marine intelligence officer said, and this has contributed to an increase in attacks in recent weeks.

More than 100 people have been detained so far during this week’s operation, though some will be released after questioning. In the last four months more than 600 people have been held, at least for a time. BDWN

Iraq determined to keep election date

Officials attribute need to delay balloting because of deteriorating security; Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier

By Sameer N. Yacoub

Originally published November 27, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman said Saturday that the government is determined to hold the Jan. 30 elections on time despite calls by Sunni Muslim politicians to delay the balloting for six months because of deteriorating security.

About 17 Sunni Muslim politicians urged the government Friday for postpone the elections, in part to convince Sunni clerics to abandon their call for a boycott and to enable the authorities to secure polling stations.

However, the interim constitution and the U.N. Security Council have mandated a ballot by the end of January to meet demands by religious leaders of the majority Shiite community, which has been insisting on elections since the early months of the U.S. military presence.

"The Iraqi government is determined, as I told you before, to hold elections on time," Allawi's spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb told reporters. "The Iraqi government led by the prime minister is calling for all spectra of the Iraqi people to participate in the elections, and to contribute in the elections to build a strong democratic country."

Al-Naqeeb said that boycotts do not serve "the country or the future of Iraq and we hope that there won't be any boycott from any party whatsoever."

Al-Naqeeb said Allawi "considers seriously the responsibility given to him" by the interim constitution and the Security Council "to carry out elections at the end of January."

"The prime minister deeply understands the importance of this opinion" to delay the balloting "but he also understands the insistence of other political parties and national figures for holding elections on time."

He was referring among others to the country's Shiite clerical hierarchy which has insisted that the balloting be held on schedule.

Al-Naqeeb said the election commission had assured Allawi that they are ready to hold the election on Jan. 30 despite the security crisis in Sunni Muslim sections of central, northern and western Iraq.

The spokesman also said Allawi, a secular Shiite, was not convinced that delaying the election would guarantee broader participation. Sunni Muslim clerics have called for a boycott to protest the U.S.-led attack on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, and insurgent groups have dismissed the balloting.

Al-Naqeeb also denied that Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party had joined in calling for a delay, although he confirmed that a member was present at a meeting Friday in which other groups issued the call.

"Yes there were representatives from the party who were invited to the meeting yesterday," al-Naqeeb said. "They did not participate in the statement. They were just listening to the other parties."

On Saturday, about 100 insurgents attacked city hall and two police stations in Khalis, 40 miles north of Baghdad, said municipal official Saad Ahmed Abbas.

"They occupied the city hall for a while," Abbas said, adding that U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces regained control after a two-hour exchange of fire.

Ghassan al-Khadran, deputy of governor of Diyala province, said one policeman was injured in the shootout and that several rebels were killed.

"The anti-Iraqi forces attacked the center using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from the vicinity of a nearby school," said a U.S. military statement.

The attack came as U.S., British and Iraqi security forces continued their operation against suspected insurgent strongholds in a region south of Baghdad, around the cities of Latifiyah and Mahmoudiyah. A U.S. military spokesman said Saturday that a total of 126 men suspected of launching attacks in the area had been arrested.

Also on Saturday, a U.S. soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a patrol about 40 miles north of Baghdad, the military said. The attack on the patrol from the 1st Infantry Division occurred near Duluiyah. An M1 Abrams battle tank was also damaged in the attack.

Three civilians died and a dozen were injured in Baghdad in separate bomb attacks against U.S. convoys.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military vehicle was damaged in a blast on the highway near Baghdad International Airport, witnesses said. The rear of vehicle, an armored military bus, was badly damaged by the explosion.

In the town of Buhriz north of Baghdad, an official in the Iraqi Communist party was assassinated by unidentified assailants, a party spokesman said Saturday.

Two weeks ago, another prominent Communist Party official was gunned down with two of his bodyguards north of Baghdad. Iraq's Communist Party -- which was banned under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship -- cooperated closely with the U.S. occupation authorities and is now part of Allawi's interim government. BDWN

Turkey, Cranberry, And Grid: A New Way To Give Thanks

This Thursday kicks off a season of thanksgiving and charity. Some folks dole out hot soup to the homeless; others ring bells in shopping malls to raise money. Well, here's another easy way to approach charitable giving: the World Community Grid.

Unveiled just last week by IBM's Sam Palmisano and a group of prestigious foundations, researchers, and academic institutions, the World Community Grid is a global humanitarian effort that offers citizens the opportunity to donate their idle PCs to work in the search for cures to cancer and AIDS. According to Ken King, vice president of grid for IBM, all users need do is download an application that can tap into their computers' resources when they are not using them. With a cable modem or T-1 line, it takes five to seven seconds to download. The World Community Grid advisory board will focus on three to five projects, each involving medical research, environmental research, or human health and welfare studies.

IBM believes it can reduce research time from years to months by leveraging just thousands of PCs. It hopes persuade millions of PC users to participate. Already, 300,000 IBM employees have agreed to do so, and when the initiative was announced on Tuesday, the Worldwide Community Grid's Web site received over 2 million hits.

IBM's efforts, to be fair, are not completely altruistic. By leveraging the grid to solve societal problems, IBM and other grid proponents can demonstrate the benefits of grid more broadly and demonstrate its strength to the commercial marketplace. Still, the cause is more than worthwhile. 27 November 2004. BDWN

TURKISH CONSUMER ELECTRONICS AND HOME APPLIANCES CAPTURE EUROPEAN MARKETS

[November 27, 2004]

There is a notable progress in production of consumer electronics and home appliances in Turkey. TV sets, refrigerators, laundry washer, dishwashing machines, kitchen robots produced in Turkey are imported to many countries including Europe. Reportedly, 59 percent of TV sets bought in European states are made in Turkey. Chinese companies are the most serious rivals in the European market. 27 November 2004. BDWN