The Mazeika Report
August 11, 2008
go to "blog" link to http://mazeikabloginternationalnews.blogspot.com/ for archival reports for the months of July and June, 2008Pass this link on to other readers! Breaking stories.....your comments are welcome.... Place this "blog link" into your computer favorites for easy access.
=======================================================
Visit our interactive website and new featured listings....at http://www.ocrelocate.com/ Ocean to Mountains Real Estate for all Orange County
Tony & Danute Mazeika...... 949 721-3445 pager.... 949 929-9051 cell
Celebrating 21 years and more than 500 successful real estate transactions...
Don't miss incredible market opportunities....... Prices are at Year 2002 level... July home sales up significantly ...Positive signs of market recovery are here. Inventory is decreasing. You may qualify for a credit on closing costs and savings on escrow fees...Ask us how...... Don't delay..call us today! 949 721-3445 ================================================================ Please support this unique blog.....Buy your ....Books, Dvds, and CDs on our special link access to Amazon.Com for Tony & Danute ========================================================
Breaking news & commentary ....click on active links for multiple photos!
August 11, 2008
Russians Push Past Separatist Area to Assault Central Georgia
By ANNE BARNARD, ANDREW E. KRAMER and C. J. CHIVERS
Russian ground forces on Sunday passed a car with a South Ossetian license plate near the town of Dzhava in South Ossetia. More Photos >
This article was reported by Andrew E. Kramer, Anne Barnard and C. J. Chivers, and written by Ms. Barnard.
TBILISI, Georgia — Russia expanded its attacks on Georgia on Sunday, moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia, in its first direct assault on a Georgian city with ground forces during three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.
The maneuver — along with bombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi — seemed to suggest that Russia’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and an ally of the United States whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.
Russia’s moves, which came after Georgia offered a cease-fire and said it had pulled its troops out of South Ossetia, caused widespread international alarm and anger and set the stage for an intense diplomatic confrontation with the United States.
Two senior Western officials said that it was unclear whether Russia intended a full invasion of Georgia, but that its aims could go as far as destroying its armed forces or overthrowing Georgia’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
“They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point,” one senior Western diplomat said, speaking anonymously under normal diplomatic protocol.
The escalation of fighting raised tensions between Russia and its former cold war foes to their highest level in decades. President Bush has promoted Georgia as a bastion of democracy, helped strengthen its military and urged that NATO admit the country to membership. Georgia serves as a major conduit for oil flowing from Russia and Central Asia to the West.
But Russia, emboldened by windfall profits from oil exports, is showing a resolve to reassert its dominance in a region it has always considered its “near abroad.”
The military action, which has involved air, naval and missile attacks, is the largest engagement by Russian forces outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia escalated its assault on Sunday despite strong diplomatic warnings from Mr. Bush and European leaders, underscoring the limits of Western influence over Russia at a time when the rest of Europe depends heavily on Russia for natural gas and the United States needs Moscow’s cooperation if it hopes to curtail what it believes is a nuclear weapons threat from Iran.
President Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, strongly criticized the Russian attacks, especially those outside South Ossetia, and urged an immediate cease-fire.
In an interview on NBC on Monday morning, he said he had been “very firm” with both Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, and its president, Dmitri Medvedev.
Earlier, Vice President Dick Cheney expressed a strong warning for Russia. In a telephone conversation with the Georgian president, he said “that Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community,” a spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said in a statement released by the White House.
Russian officials say Georgia provoked the assault by attacking South Ossetia last week, causing heavy civilian casualties. But Western diplomats and military officials said they worried that Russia’s decision to extend the fighting and open a second front in Abkhazia indicated that it had sought to use a relatively low-level conflict in a conflict-prone part of the Caucasus region to extend its influence over a much broader area.
On Sunday, Russian artillery shells slammed the city of Gori, a major military installation and transportation hub in Georgia. In the separatist region of Abkhazia, Russian paratroopers and their Abkhaz allies battled Georgian special forces and tried to cross the boundary into undisputed Georgian territory, Georgian officials said.
Russia dropped a bomb on Tbilisi’s international airport shortly before Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France, who was sent by the European Union to try to mediate, was due to land, Georgian officials said. It twice bombed an aviation factory on the outskirts of the capital. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet patrolled the coast of Abkhazia, and its Defense Ministry said Russian warships had sunk a Georgian gunboat that fired on them.
The Kremlin declined to say whether its troops had entered Georgia proper but said all its actions were intended to strike at Georgian military forces that had fired on its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia.
A senior Russian defense official, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said early Sunday that Russia did not intend to “break into” Georgian territory.
The Bush administration said it would seek a resolution from the United Nations Security Council condemning Russian military actions in Georgia.
In a heated exchange with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States accused the Kremlin of seeking to oust President Saakashvili.
He charged that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, had said as much Sunday morning in a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, telling her “that the democratically elected president of Georgia ‘must go,’ ” Mr. Khalilzad said. Mr. Khalilzad said the comment was “completely unacceptable.”
In Washington, American officials said that Georgian troops had tried to disengage but that the Russians had not allowed them to.
“The Georgians told them, ‘We’re done. Let us withdraw,’ ” one American military official said. “But the Russians are not letting them withdraw. They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this.”
The official was not authorized to brief the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official added: “This is not about military objectives. This is about a political objective: removing a thorn in their side.”
Tensions with Mr. Saakashvili escalated when he made a centerpiece of his presidency the reunification of Georgia with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pro-Russian regions that won de facto autonomy in fighting in the early 1990s.
Russia has issued passports to many residents in the territories and has stationed peacekeeping troops in them. Heavy fighting broke out last week in South Ossetia when Georgian troops tried to take its capital in what seems to have been a major miscalculation.
Reports of the death toll varied widely, from the low hundreds to more than 2,000, but none could be independently verified.
Russian officials say more than 30,000 South Ossetians have fled into Russia.
Russia says it is acting to protect residents there and to punish Georgia for the assault, which Georgia says was to protect Georgian enclaves in the territory from attack and to push out illegally deployed Russian troops.
Russian officials told Russian news agencies late Sunday night that Georgian troops were attacking Tskhinvali.
There were no independent observers with either country’s forces, and verifying claims about military activity was not immediately possible.
Georgian officials expressed alarm on Sunday that Russia might be aiming to take Gori, about a 45-minute drive south from Tskhinvali. Gori, a major staging area for the Georgian military, sits in a valley that is the main route connecting the east and west halves of Georgia.
Shota Utiashvili, an official in the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the Russians had moved tanks and troops to within a few kilometers of Gori and were “trying to cut the country in half.”
Mr. Utiashvili said that if they tried to occupy Georgia, “there will probably be guerrilla warfare all over the country.”
He said: “We need large supplies of humanitarian aid, because we have thousands of wounded. And weapons. We need weapons.”
Sunday evening, artillery and tank fire could be heard from the outskirts of Gori. During a pause in the fighting, Georgian military personnel appeared to be flowing into the city. Georgian officials said they would defend it.
Ambulances with flashing red and blue lights roared back and forth on the highway between Gori and Tbilisi, along with troop transports. Families fled Gori in cars and donkey carts.
“The whole family is running away. There is nowhere for us to take shelter,” said Ketevan Sunabali, 40, who had left home in a pair of red Winnie the Pooh slippers. She said she had heard the bombs exploding and seen the smoke and just jumped in the car with her husband, without stopping to take any of their belongings.
“I had a home. I had a father,” said Gogita Kazahashvili, 29. “My father died today from the bombing. I’ve seen with my own eyes. My house was destroyed. I buried my father myself, by where the house was.”
A man who said he was fleeing from Kakhvi, which he described as a Georgian-controlled enclave squeezed between parts of South Ossetia along the winding border, said Russian soldiers had come to his house, and he had run away. Along the road, others who were displaced carried their possessions in wheelbarrows and plastic bags.
A reporter for The New York Times saw artillery being fired from Russian-controlled areas into Georgian territory near the villages of Eredvy and Prisi, about two miles from Tskhinvali. Grassy fields were burning in the villages and clouds of dust rose with the impact of the shells.
Even one close Russian ally, Maksim K. Gvindzhiya, expressed alarm about the possibility of Russian troops moving on Gori and clashing with Georgians on unchallenged Georgian territory.
“If it happened, then it’s a big mess, it’s a big problem, because it is direct confrontation,” said Mr. Gvindzhiya, deputy foreign affairs minister for the de facto government of Abkhazia. “It’s going out of the conflict zone.”
Fighting escalated in Abkhazia as well, Mr. Gvindzhiya and Georgian officials said.
Russia doubled the number of its troops in Abkhazia to about 6,000 early Sunday, landing paratroopers at an airport near the Black Sea. There was heavy fighting in the Kodori Gorge, the only area in Abkhazia that Georgia controls, with Russian paratroopers ferried in by helicopter.
In Washington, Secretary Rice worked through the night Saturday with other Bush administration officials on a Security Council resolution. American diplomats said that they did not want an actual Security Council vote on the resolution until Tuesday or so, the better to draw out the debate and publicly shame the Russian government. While the resolution will carry no punitive weight, and is almost sure to be vetoed by Russia, a permanent Council member, the hope is that it could create more pressure for a cease-fire, officials said.
Meanwhile, Georgian and Western diplomatic officials said Georgia had offered a cease-fire proposal to Russia, though Russian officials did not acknowledge receiving such an offer.
Andrew E. Kramer reported from Tbilisi, and Anne Barnard from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz and Nicholas Kulish from Tbilisi, Helene Cooper from Washington, and Joseph Sywenkiy from Gori, Georgia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/europe/11georgia.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
====================================================
Georgia claims Russians have cut country in half
By DAVID NOWAK
GORI, Georgia (AP) - Russian forces seized several towns and a military base deep in western Georgia on Monday, opening a second front in the fighting. Georgia's president said his country had been effectively cut in half with the capture of the main east-west highway near Gori.
Full story via link: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080811/D92G94PG0.html
========================================
Georgia 'overrun' by Russian troops as full-scale ground invasion begins
Gordon Brown urges Moscow to order a ceasefire
Putin lashes out at the U.S. for 'helping Georgia'
Georgia 'restarts shelling' after ceasefire call ignore
Refugee crisis as 40,000 flee
Full story via link:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23530546-details/Defiant+Putin+accuses+US+of+
===============================================
Russians seize key city, open second Georgia front
GORI, Georgia (AP) - Russia captured the central city of Gori and its armored vehicles rolled deep into western Georgia on Monday, seizing a military base and several towns and opening a second front of fighting. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said the Russian forces had effectively cut his country in half.
Full story via link:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D92G83HG0&show_article=1
==============================================================
US, Russian ambassadors spar at UN over Georgia
By JOHN HEILPRINThe Associated PressSunday, August 10, 2008; 7:09 PM
UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad exchanged sharp words with the Russian ambassador on Sunday, accusing Moscow of seeking "regime change" in Georgia and resisting attempts to make peace after days of fighting have left hundreds of civilians dead.
Khalilzad disclosed during a U.N. Security Council session that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday morning "that a democratically elected president of Georgia _ and I quote _ must go."
Khalilzad turned to Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin repeating the exchange and saying, "This is totally unacceptable and crosses the line." He then asked whether the country was attempting to overthrow Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.
"Is your government's objective regime change in Georgia, the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Georgia?" he said.
Churkin confirmed there had been a "confidential phone call" between Lavrov and Rice, but did not directly answer Khalilzad.
"I'd like to say straightaway that regime change is an American expression," Churkin said. "We do not use such an expression. But sometimes there are occasions, and we know from history, that there are different leaders who come to power, either democratically or semi-democratically, and they become an obstacle."
Lavrov later told reporters in Moscow that Rice had misinterpreted his remarks. Referring to Georgia's president, Lavrov said Russia can no longer view "a man who issued orders to commit war crimes" as a negotiating partner and therefore "without the departure of Saakashvili it is impossible to stop the conflict in South Ossetia."
But Georgia's ambassador, Irakli Alasania, told the council it was "Russia's intention to erase Georgian statehood, to exterminate Georgian people." He later told The Associated Press that the conversation between Lavrov and Rice about Saakashvili confirms "something that we believed always that Russia had in mind."
Churkin, in turn, accused Georgia of waging "genocide" against South Ossetians. He said Russia will only act in self-defense. "Let's state clearly that we are ready to put an end to the war, that we will withdraw from South Ossetia, that we will sign an agreement on nonuse of force," Churkin proposed.
However, diplomats said major fighting continued in many areas.
The conflict began when U.S.-allied Georgia began an offensive to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia overnight Friday. Georgia launched heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded the provincial capital of Tskhinvali.
In response, Russia launched overwhelming artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops. On Sunday, Russian jets targeted an aircraft-making plant near the airport on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic.
The Security Council's session Sunday was the fourth meeting in as many days. Council members broke off their three-hour meeting Sunday to return to private negotiations outside council chambers. The council had no more plans to take up the matter until Monday at the earliest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081001013_pf.html
=========================================
OPINION
The War in Georgia Is a War for the West
By MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILIAugust 11, 2008; Page A15
Tbilisi, Georgia
As I write, Russia is waging war on my country.
On Friday, hundreds of Russian tanks crossed into Georgian territory, and Russian air force jets bombed Georgian airports, bases, ports and public markets. Many are dead, many more wounded. This invasion, which echoes Afghanistan in 1979 and the Prague Spring of 1968, threatens to undermine the stability of the international security system.
AP
An apartment building, damaged by a Russian air strike, in the northern Georgian town of Gori, Saturday, Aug. 9.
Why this war? This is the question my people are asking. This war is not of Georgia's making, nor is it Georgia's choice.
The Kremlin designed this war. Earlier this year, Russia tried to provoke Georgia by effectively annexing another of our separatist territories, Abkhazia. When we responded with restraint, Moscow brought the fight to South Ossetia.
Ostensibly, this war is about an unresolved separatist conflict. Yet in reality, it is a war about the independence and the future of Georgia. And above all, it is a war over the kind of Europe our children will live in. Let us be frank: This conflict is about the future of freedom in Europe.
No country of the former Soviet Union has made more progress toward consolidating democracy, eradicating corruption and building an independent foreign policy than Georgia. This is precisely what Russia seeks to crush.
This conflict is therefore about our common trans-Atlantic values of liberty and democracy. It is about the right of small nations to live freely and determine their own future. It is about the great power struggles for influence of the 20th century, versus the path of integration and unity defined by the European Union of the 21st. Georgia has made its choice.
When my government was swept into power by a peaceful revolution in 2004, we inherited a dysfunctional state plagued by two unresolved conflicts dating to the early 1990s. I pledged to reunify my country -- not by the force of arms, but by making Georgia a pole of attraction. I wanted the people living in the conflict zones to share in the prosperous, democratic country that Georgia could -- and has -- become.
In a similar spirit, we sought friendly relations with Russia, which is and always will be Georgia's neighbor. We sought deep ties built on mutual respect for each other's independence and interests. While we heeded Russia's interests, we also made it clear that our independence and sovereignty were not negotiable. As such, we felt we could freely pursue the sovereign choice of the Georgian nation -- to seek deeper integration into European economic and security institutions.
We have worked hard to peacefully bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia back into the Georgian fold, on terms that would fully protect the rights and interests of the residents of these territories. For years, we have offered direct talks with the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, so that we could discuss our plan to grant them the broadest possible autonomy within the internationally recognized borders of Georgia.
But Russia, which effectively controls the separatists, responded to our efforts with a policy of outright annexation. While we appealed to residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia with our vision of a common future, Moscow increasingly took control of the separatist regimes. The Kremlin even appointed Russian security officers to arm and administer the self-styled separatist governments.
Under any circumstances, Russia's meddling in our domestic affairs would have constituted a gross violation of international norms. But its actions were made more egregious by the fact that Russia, since the 1990s, has been entrusted with the responsibility of peacekeeping and mediating in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Rather than serve as honest broker, Russia became a direct party to the conflicts, and now an open aggressor.
As Europe expanded its security institutions to the Black Sea, my government appealed to the Western community of nations -- particularly European governments and institutions -- to play a leading role in resolving our separatist conflicts. The key to any resolution was to replace the outdated peacekeeping and negotiating structures created almost two decades ago, and dominated by Russia, with a genuine international effort.
But Europe kept its distance and, predictably, Russia escalated its provocations. Our friends in Europe counseled restraint, arguing that diplomacy would take its course. We followed their advice and took it one step further, by constantly proposing new ideas to resolve the conflicts. Just this past spring, we offered the separatist leaders sweeping autonomy, international guarantees and broad representation in our government.
Our offers of peace were rejected. Moscow sought war. In April, Russia began treating the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as Russian provinces. Again, our friends in the West asked us to show restraint, and we did. But under the guise of peacekeeping, Russia sent paratroopers and heavy artillery into Abkhazia. Repeated provocations were designed to bring Georgia to the brink of war.
When this failed, the Kremlin turned its attention to South Ossetia, ordering its proxies there to escalate attacks on Georgian positions. My government answered with a unilateral cease-fire; the separatists began attacking civilians and Russian tanks pierced the Georgian border. We had no choice but to protect our civilians and restore our constitutional order. Moscow then used this as pretext for a full-scale military invasion of Georgia.
Over the past days, Russia has waged an all-out attack on Georgia. Its tanks have been pouring into South Ossetia. Its jets have bombed not only Georgian military bases, but also civilian and economic infrastructure, including demolishing the port of Poti on the Black Sea coast. Its Black Sea fleet is now massing on our shores and an attack is under way in Abkhazia.
What is at stake in this war?
Most obviously, the future of my country is at stake. The people of Georgia have spoken with a loud and clear voice: They see their future in Europe. Georgia is an ancient European nation, tied to Europe by culture, civilization and values. In January, three in four Georgians voted in a referendum to support membership in NATO. These aims are not negotiable; now, we are paying the price for our democratic ambitions.
Second, Russia's future is at stake. Can a Russia that wages aggressive war on its neighbors be a partner for Europe? It is clear that Russia's current leadership is bent on restoring a neocolonial form of control over the entire space once governed by Moscow.
If Georgia falls, this will also mean the fall of the West in the entire former Soviet Union and beyond. Leaders in neighboring states -- whether in Ukraine, in other Caucasian states or in Central Asia -- will have to consider whether the price of freedom and independence is indeed too high.
Mr. Saakashvili is president of Georgia.
See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.
And add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121841306186328421.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
=====================================================
Baltic states turn on Russia
By Robert Anderson in Stockholm
Published: August 11 2008 17:04 Last updated: August 11 2008 17:04
The Baltic states, past victims of Kremlin attacks, have called on the European Union to suspend its drive for closer relations with Russia after its invasion of Georgia.
“We have to review our policy. Can we consider a partner a country who behaves like this?” President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia said in an interview. He added: “It’s time to stop sticking our head in the sand.”
The presidents of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, together with Poland, issued a joint statement at the weekend warning that the Georgian conflict would be a credibility “litmus test” for Nato and the EU.
This immediately prompted a warning from the Russian ambassador to Latvia that they would pay for their attitude. “One must not hurry on such serious issues, as serious mistakes can be made that have to be paid for a long time afterwards,” Alexander Veshnyakov told the Baltic News Service on Monday.
The Baltic states fought for their independence against Russia in the early 1990s and have suffered frequent Russian interference since.
After Estonia moved a Soviet war memorial in spring last year, Russia interrupted border traffic and nationalists attacked Estonia’s embassy in Moscow and launched a wave of cyber attacks against public and private institutions. Georgia is now suffering similar web-based attacks and Estonia has sent two of its experts to give advice.
Baltic leaders believe they have been vindicated by Russia’s attack on Georgia and they hope that EU foreign ministers will share their tough attitude when they meet on Wednesday.
“It’s very difficult for any country to take the same view of the EU-Russian relationship as they did before,” said President Ilves. “The (Russian) behaviour has been so egregious that we can’t close our eyes any more.”
President Ilves said that this would not be an anti-Russian coalition, as some EU states such as Italy fear, stressing: “It’s a pro-democracy, pro-rule of law coalition that is emerging right now.”
The Baltic and Polish presidents are calling for a review of the planned new Partnership and Co-operation Agreement between Russia and the EU and for the suspension of the programme to ease EU-Russia visa restrictions.
The presidents accuse Moscow of failing to meet the minimum requirements for the visa facilitation programme and of abusing the scheme in South Ossetia.
“The visa facilitation policy was complicit in what happened in Georgia,” said President Ilves, pointing out that Russia issued passports to inhabitants of the separatist region - granting them easier access to the EU than Georgians - and then used the presence of Russian nationals there to help justify its invasion.
The presidents also criticise Nato’s failure to give Georgia a timetable for membership earlier this year: “We regret that the not granting of Nato’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia was seen as a green light for aggression in the region,” their statement said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/92679ed2-67bc-11dd-8d3b-0000779fd18c,dwp_uuid=7c485a38-2f7a-11da-8b51-00000e2511c8,print=yes.html
==============================================
Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine call for sending EU peacekeeping troops in Georgia
Berlin, Aug 11, IRNA Germany-Poland-Georgia Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine urged the deployment of European Union peacekeeping forces in the Georgian breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a top Polish official was quoted as in Warsaw Monday.
Russian peacekeeping troops are not credible, said the deputy head of Poland's presidential office, Piotr Kownacki.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski reportedly made such a proposal during a phone conversation with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy whose country holds the current rotating EU presidency.
The plan was drafted jointly by the presidents of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine.
A prerequisite for sending EU peacekeepers to Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be a truce, said Kownacki who is to travel to Tbilisi later in the day for talks with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Asked whether Poland would be ready to take part in a likely EU peacekeeping mission in the Caucasus, Kownacki replied, "Certainly yes." The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia condemned over the weekend in a joint statement the actions of Russian forces fighting in South Ossetia.
The declaration was 'sharp, but the situation calls for it', the Polish president said in remarks to journalists in Warsaw.
He branded the Russian military intervention as violating international law and an 'act of aggression'.
"South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of the republic of Georgia and nothing can change this," stressed Kaczynski.
The four states called on all NATO and European Union members 'to react accordingly' to the widening crisis.
Kaczynski demanded something more than 'insignificant statements'.
Warsaw has been pressing hard for Georgia's membership in NATO and the EU.
OT**2322**1412
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0808110373185504.htm
==================================================
August 11, 2008
On Slog to Safety, Seething at West
By ANDREW E. KRAMER and ELLEN BARRY
GORI, Georgia — In retreat, the Georgian soldiers were so tired they could not keep from stumbling. Their arms were loaded with rucksacks and ammunition boxes; they had dark circles under their eyes. Officers ran up and down the line, barking for them to go faster.
All along the road was grief. Old men pushed wheelbarrows loaded with bags or led cows by tethers. They drove tractors and rickety Ladas packed with suitcases and televisions.
As a column of soldiers passed through Gori, a black-robed priest came out of his church and made the sign of the cross again and again.
One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov.
“We killed as many of them as we could,” he said. “But where are our friends?”
It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?
Since the conflict began, Western leaders have worked frantically to broker a cease-fire. But for Georgians — so boisterously pro-American that Tbilisi, the capital, has a George W. Bush Street — diplomacy fell far short of what they expected.
Even in the hinterlands, at kebab stands and in farming villages, people fleeing South Ossetia saw themselves as trapped between great powers. Ossetian refugees heading north to Russia gushed their gratitude to Dmitri A. Medvedev and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian leaders. Georgians around Gori spoke of America plaintively, uncertainly. They were beginning to feel betrayed.
“Tell your government,” said a man named Truber, fresh from the side of the Tbilisi hospital bed where his son was being treated for combat injuries. “If you had said something stronger, we would not be in this.”
He had not slept for three days, and he was angry — at himself, at Georgia, but mainly at the United States. “If you want to help, you have to help the end,” he said.
Meanwhile, the influx of Ossetians into southern Russia continued Sunday, as the police escorted convoys of minibuses up the Zaramakh highway and through the mountain tunnel that is the only route into Russia.
The Russian authorities estimated that 34,000 refugees had crossed the border, and 3,000 more evacuations were planned for Monday.
The Ossetians emerged onto a four-lane highway whose edges had been chopped to pieces by columns of Russian armor. Around them were mountains shrouded by fog.
Tatiana Gobozoyeva was riding in a van with 20 other refugees, many of whom had spent four days huddled in dirty basements. She said she considered the United States responsible for the Georgian aggression.
Pyotr Bezhov, who fled the violence with his daughter Oksana on Sunday, stood by a dusty dirt road.
“The biggest problem here is you, your country,” he said. “You said that the Soviets were an evil empire, but it’s you that are the empire.
“Not you personally, of course,” he added. “But your government.”
On the other side of the line of battle, Georgians had begun to question the strength of their alliance with the United States.
In recent years, Mr. Bush has lavished praise on Georgia — and the so-called Rose Revolution that brought Mikheil Saakashvili to power — as a model of democracy-building. The feeling was mutual: when Mr. Bush visited Tbilisi in 2005, the authorities estimated that 150,000 people showed up to see him. He famously climbed up on a platform and wiggled his hips to loud Georgian folk music.
Those exuberant days seemed very distant around Gori on Sunday, as people fled, leaving behind corn fields and apple orchards. A group of men tried mightily to push a truck with a blown-out tire, but it got stuck on the road, and they finally abandoned it.
Gato Tkviavi lingered in Tirzini, a village of one-story houses where cows were wandering through the streets.
Asked where the border with South Ossetia was, he pointed at his feet. “The border is where the Russians say it is,” he said. “It could be here, or it could be Gori.”
The grimmest among the Georgians were the soldiers, haggard, unshaven and swinging their Kalashnikovs. A group of them had piled onto a flatbed truck, crowding on in such numbers that some were sitting on the roof, their feet dangling over the windshield.
One, who gave his name as Major Georgi, spoke with anger.
“Write exactly what I say,” he said. “Over the past few years, I lived in a democratic society. I was happy. And now America and the European Union are spitting on us.”
Andrew E. Kramer reported from Gori and Ellen Barry from Moscow. Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Matt Siegel from Vladikavkaz, Russia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/europe/11scene.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
===================================================
Russia's cold-war mentality
By going to war with Georgia, Russia is drawing a new Iron Curtain.
from the August 11, 2008 edition
A new Iron Curtain is being drawn around Russia. It's not so impregnable or wide as the Soviet one. But Moscow's willingness to war with NATO-aspirant Georgia sends this clear message to the expanding West: Thus far, and no farther. Given Russia's strength, the West has few options.
Neither the US nor any other NATO country will fight Russia over Georgia's two tiny separatist enclaves – South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia invaded South Ossetia Aug. 8 after Georgian troops tried to reassert influence there. Meanwhile, Russia's sending reinforcements to Abkhazia. Both territories have been protected by Russian peacekeepers since the early 1990s, when they broke from Georgia in bloody rebellions.
The US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who wants war with Russia over this?
Neither does the West have much diplomatic or economic leverage with oil- and gas-rich Russia, whose autocratic regime has broad support from a population satisfied with stability.
As Russia's swift and deadly military response in Georgia shows, the West has underestimated – indeed sometimes aggravated – Moscow's fears about growing Western influence eastward.
Over the last year, Europe and the US pushed ahead with Kosovo's independence from Russian ally Serbia. While this may have been the right thing to do, it happened over the Kremlin's vigorous objections. And the US has not relented on anti-missile installations in Poland and the Czech Republic.
But if others underestimated Russia's determination to control its "near abroad" – and perhaps no one miscalculated more than Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili – Russia grossly overestimates the threat of the West's eastward march.
NATO is not an anti-Russian military alliance. The EU has improved the economies, governments, and lawfulness of its new eastern members. This benefits Russia as an EU trading partner and neighbor.
When he was Russia's president, Vladimir Putin accused the West of reigniting the cold war, but it is actually Russia that's stuck in the cold-war mentality.
Bullying through energy blackmail and now tanks and bombers, it reaches for its imperialist past and believes it requires a buffer to protect itself from threatening democracies. It would love to get back, or more tightly control, parts of Ukraine and Moldova, the long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, and parts of central Asia.
The West can best respond by starving this cold-war mentality – and weaning itself from Russian fossil fuels. If there is nothing for Moscow to fear in NATO and EU expansion, its members should not act as if there is. Russia deserves a strong rebuke, but at the same time, the West must be careful not to feed Russian nationalism.
The arguments to be made to Russia now must be ones of reason: Its support for separatists can come back to bite it (think Chechnya); and is violating another country's sovereignty something Russia would want for itself?
This must be part of a patient strategy that may, in the near term, result in Georgia having to give up its enclaves in exchange for peace. But for the West to abstain from the cold-war game appears to be the only way, over time, to win it.
Find this article at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0811/p08s01-comv.html
==========================================
Sweden evokes Hitler in condemning Russian assault
Published: 9 Aug 08 21:08 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/13596/
Sweden has evoked the memory of Adolf Hitler in condemning Russia's attacks on Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, saying the protection of Russians there did not justify the assault.
Bildt urges Russian restraint in Georgia (9 Aug 08) "No state has the right to intervene militarily in the territory of another state simply because there are individuals there with a passport issued by that state or who are nationals of the state," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in a statement."Attempts to apply such a doctrine have plunged Europe into war in the past... And we have reason to remember how Hitler used this very doctrine little more than half a century ago to undermine and attack substantial parts of central Europe," Bildt said.Russian warplanes on Saturday bombed targets in Georgia as that country's president declared "a state of war", while Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country would "force the Georgian side into peace."Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military campaign to take back the province which broke away in the early 1990s.Sweden has called for an immediate end to bombing raids and the withdrawal of Russian troops that have entered Georgia to allow for a peaceful solution to the conflict.Earlier on Saturday, Sweden joined calls for an emergency European Union summit on the escalating conflict in Georgia. Bildt said EU foreign ministers could gather on Monday in Paris."There must be a very strong response on the part of the European Union," said Bildt, quoted by Sweden's TT news agency.Sweden's top diplomat was the international community's high representative in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1996-1997 following the Balkan wars.Bildt also evoked the memory of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in addressing Russia's agression against Georgia."We did not accept military intervention by Milosevic's Sserbia in other Yugoslav states on the grounds of protecting Serbian passport holders," he said.
AFP (news@thelocal.se)
http://www.thelocal.se/13596/20080809/
========================================
Georgia, Russia: Checkmate?
The conflict in the small former Soviet state of Georgia has taken a new twist.
So far, apart from Russian airstrikes, most of the combat has been limited to the north-central Georgian secessionist province of South Ossetia. But on Aug. 11, Russia beefed up its 2,500-strong peacekeeping force in Abkhazia — a secessionist region in northwestern Georgia — to more than 9,000 troops. And now the Russian Defense Ministry has announced — and the Georgian Interior Ministry has confirmed — that Russian forces have advanced up to the western Georgian city of Senaki.
The presence of Russian troops in Senaki has a number of important implications.
First, the Russian forces used in the operation approached from Abkhazia. There has been a U.N. buffer force between Abkhaz- and Georgian-controlled territory, so for Russian forces to be near Senaki, the Russians would have had to move through — and ultimately beyond — that buffer. Georgia’s best troops are also typically kept near Abkhazia, suggesting that those forces have been either bypassed or destroyed. Several reports indicate the Georgians are engaged in combat with Abkhaz forces in the upper reaches of the Kodori Gorge, so it seems likely they were bypassed.
Second, Senaki sits astride a railroad juncture that links the rest of the country not only to Abkhazia, but to Georgia’s largest port: Poti. The Russians have already bombed Poti several times, but taking Senaki completely removes the port from the equation.
Third, another Georgian city — Samtredia — is only an hour’s march from Senaki. Samtredia sits astride the Baku-Tbilisi-Supsa oil pipeline, transit fees from which are a major portion of Georgia’s economic wherewithal. But its military significance for Georgia cannot be overstated.
Samtredia is where Georgia’s transport links to its only other ports, Supsa and Batumi, merge with its link to Poti. (Technically, Sukumi is also a Georgian port, but the Abkhaz have controlled it since achieving de facto independence in 1993.) Should Samtredia fall, Russia will have, in effect, enacted a naval blockade of Georgia without using its navy. The city is also the only land link of any meaningful size to Turkey. While Turkey — along with the rest of the world — does not want to get involved in the conflict, the capture of Samtredia effectively blocks any potential land-based reinforcements from reaching Georgia via Turkey.
Furthermore, there is only one road and rail line that leads east from Samtredia to the rest of the country. This transport corridor is, in essence, the backbone of the entire country. Should Samtredia fall, there is really nothing that can be done — by Georgia or anyone else — to stop the Russians from taking over Georgia outright, one piece at a time, at their leisure.
In essence, the Russians are a heartbeat away from being able to dictate terms to the Georgians without even glancing in the direction of Tbilisi.
http://www.stratfor.com/
=====================================================
August 8, 2008
Islamists Rule American Publishing Industry
Warner Todd Huston
America is the land of liberty. It is the place where political expression is protected by law and custom. It is the freest nation on Earth… unless, of course, you wish to talk about Islam. Then, unless you bow and scrape, unless you assert its supposed peacefulness, unless you bend over backwards to make sure that you don’t “offend” Islamists, you will be shut down. At least this is true if you wish to publish a book about Islam, it appears.
Not long ago, a book titled “Alms for Jihad” was ridiculously voluntarily destroyed, “pulped” being the term, by its own publisher. This unusual action was taken because one activist Muslim took the bookseller to libel court and won, saying that he was somehow maligned by allegations in the book. The ridiculous part is that the book was published by Cambridge University Press but was sued by Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz in a British court. Neither the court nor the complainant was American. Yet, this foolish American publisher voluntarily destroyed its entire run and went to the effort to send a letter to libraries to tell them to remove the book from shelves over the verdict of this foreign court.
Alarmingly, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mahfouz has been successful in at least four such libel cases against book publishers throughout the world in these compliant, malleable British courts.
A professor, Deborah Lipstadt at Emory University, who won a libel suit in Britain brought against her and Penguin, likewise told The New York Sun that this action by Cambridge University Press was a “frightening development.” She said that it seemed to her that the Saudis were “systematically, case by case, book by book” challenging anything critical of them or anything that linked them to terrorism. She said that she could not think of any publisher that would now accept a manuscript critical of the Saudis. “This affects not only authors but readers,” she said, adding that “ideas are being chased out of the marketplace.”
Fortunately, some authors are trying to fight back to some extent.
The director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy, Rachel Ehrenfeld, said that Cambridge University Press “capitulated” and “didn’t even try to fight.” Sheikh Mahfouz sued her for her 2003 book “Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - and How to Stop It.” Rather than contesting the case in Britain, Ms. Ehrenfeld has taken to the American courts. In June, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in her favor, finding that if an American writer is sued for libel in a foreign court, that person can appeal to an American court to request that a British decision not be enforceable here.
But this is not the end of the matter. Sadly, another American publisher has capitulated in the face of the hatred and threats of radical Islamists. According to the Wall Street Journal, Random House has “abruptly called off publication” of a new book about the sex life of Aisha, the child bride of the Prophet Muhammad.
In fact, for the sum of a $100,000 dollar advance, Random House had already bought the book and had begun to plan the book tour for author Sherry Jones. But, the publisher abruptly changed its decision as word that the review copies sent in advance had brought warnings of unrest. Sadly, it seems an American professor is the one responsible for starting the Islamofascist ball rolling on this one. In an effort to silence the publication of this book, Denise Spellberg, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas, began to send warnings about the book to radical Islamists throughout the world.
After this Professor, a fellow traveler of radical Islam, got done rounding up the many hatemongers in Muslim communities she was in touch with, and her agitators in turn got in touch with the publisher, Random House got cold feet. In fact, they became scared to death.
On a May 21st conference call, Random House executive Elizabeth McGuire told the author and her agent that the publishing house had decided to postpone indefinitely the publication of the novel for “fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims” and concern for “the safety and security of the Random House building and employees.”
So much for America being the land of political and religious freedom, the land where anything can be achieved. It has become a land afraid of its own shadow, ruled by the stern warnings of lawyers and the fear of mob action. It has become a land where radical haters who claim to be “religious” can force law abiding citizens to live by the rulings of foreign courts and ideas antithetical to liberty.
There was once a time when saying, “The west is not at war with Islam” was all the rage. But as each year passes, that sentiment is proving to be woefully naive. If everything we are isn’t under siege from without, there never has been a time when we were.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing EditorWarner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer featured on many websites such as Newsbusters.org, Townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance. He is featured in the new book Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture and owns publiusforum.com. Click here to e-mail Warner Todd Huston.
You can find this online at: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.830/pub_detail.asp
COPYRIGHT 2008 FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS INC.
========================================================
July 24, 2008
No. 2000
Al-Qaeda Commander: Islam Doesn't Distinguish Between American People, American Gov't – Both Are Infidels and At War with Islam
On July 21, 2008, Pakistan's independent television network Geo News aired an exclusive interview with Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, Al-Qaeda's No. 3 man and top commander in Afghanistan. The interview, conducted in Arabic, was broadcast on Geo News with a voiceover in Urdu. It was later posted on Islamist websites, and its content was published in Pakistani newspapers.
Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Sa'id, is a 52-year-old Egyptian with two wives and 14 children. In 1981 he was arrested in Egypt for involvement in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat, but was released a year later. In 1988, after heading various militant groups, he joined Al-Qaeda and shifted his base of operations to Afghanistan. In 1991 he worked for Osama bin Laden in Sudan as an accountant, and later became director of Al-Qaeda's financial affairs. He has also been a member of Al-Qaeda's Shura Council, in charge of financial planning, organizational affairs, and public relations. [1]
The following are excerpts from the Geo News interview:
Pakistan Caused Great Damage to Al-Qaeda by Supporting U.S.
In the interview, Abu Al-Yazid stated that Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack on the Danish Embassy in Islamabad last June. He said that the bomber was a Saudi, and added: "We are proud to have carried out [this operation], and we congratulated our brothers for completing this task. We timed the attack in such a way that no Muslims were in the vicinity." Abu Al-Yazid also stated that Al-Qaeda had been responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. On a previous occasion, he claimed that the organization had carried out the December 27, 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime-minister Benazir Bhutto.
Referring to the permissibility of suicide bombings, Abu Al-Yazid said that eminent Islamic scholars around the world had issued fatwas sanctioning them. He added: "Suicide attacks are justified by Islamic shari'a. [However, Islamic] scholars [who are affiliated with] governments issue whatever fatwas they are told to issue... However, suicide attacks inside mosques are forbidden."
About the role of the Pakistani government in the U.S.-led war on terror, the Al-Qaeda commander remarked: "The Pakistani government is the government that has caused the greatest damage to the mujahideen. It was [Pakistani President] Pervez Musharraf...who caused the most damage to his neighbors, the mujahideen [of the Taliban], though it was [only] thanks to their sacrifice that the USSR did not invade Pakistan [in the 1980s]."
Abu Al-Yazid praised Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who is currently on trial in the U.S., saying: "Khaled is a fearless man of whom the entire Muslim nation can be proud." [2]
"The Allegation that Al-Qaeda Is Promoting U.S. Interests Is a Lie"
Asked about a conspiracy theory that has gained currency in Pakistan, namely that Al-Qaeda was created by the U.S. in the 1980s with the purpose of fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, Abu Al-Yazid said: "This is a lie and falsehood, and was exposed as such years ago... when Sheikh Osama bin Laden declared jihad against the U.S. Since then, [Al-Qaeda has carried out] a series of operations against the U.S... first the attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, then the attacks on U.S. targets in Yemen and Somalia, and culminating in the pious action of 9/11. This series of attacks on the U.S. is clear proof that this allegation - [namely] that Al-Qaeda is promoting U.S. interests - is [nothing but] a lie and falsehood." [3]
Abu Al-Yazid added: "Al-Qaeda is waging jihad against the U.S. because it is the head of the infidels and the pharaoh of our times. The U.S. is the flag-bearer of the new modern crusade... against the Muslim nation. We are [also] fighting the U.S. because it is standing by Israel and providing it with all sorts of assistance and power..." [4]
"Islam Does Not Distinguish Between the American People and the American Government"
Abu Al-Yazid stressed: "Islam does not distinguish between the American people and the American government, since both are in a state of war with Islam. After all, these are the people who elect the [American] governments, and who even elected [President George] Bush for a second term in office, despite their awareness of his agenda against Islam. Despite witnessing Bush's many brutal [actions] against the Muslims, these people re-elected him. They are the ones who pay the taxes that enable the American government and army to wage war and spill the blood of Muslims..." [5]
Abu Al-Yazid added that Al-Qaeda's attacks on the U.S. forces in Afghanistan were becoming more frequent, and that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai would not last. He also emphasized that Al-Qaeda receives no support from any Muslim government. [6]
[1] www.muslm.net, accessed July 23, 2008.
[2] Roznama Jang (Pakistan), July 22, 2008.
[3] www.muslm.net, July 23, 2008.
[4] www.muslm.net, July 23, 2008.
[5] www.muslm.net, July 23, 2008.
[6] Roznama Jang (Pakistan), July 22, 2008.
http://www.memri.org/bin/printerfriendly/pf.cgi
======================================================
Subject: This is stirring up the Muslims and the EU
Fitna: Geert Wilders film
In case you have been under a rock lately, this is the film by Geert Wilders. He's a Dutch writer who is now under protection from the Islamists in the Netherlands .
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410
This is the film that has the EU and the muslim world with their pants in a wad right now. Most websites have removed it, including You Tube. All bowing to threats.Google still has it posted as of today but, will probably bow to pressure soon. It is about 16 minutes long but, worth the time.
Now, tell everyone you know before Google is forced to take it down.
John
===================================
Fatty Baltic fish threaten sperm production
Published: 9 Aug 08 08:08 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.se/13588/
Toxic substances found in fatty fish caught in the Baltic Sea can cause seriously deteriorated sperm production, according to new research.
Baltic woes hit SEB profits (16 Jul 08)
Malmö researchers solve eczema riddle (16 Jul 08)
Baltic Sea gasps for air (24 Jun 08)
It has long been known that pregnant women should avoid fish caught in the Baltic Sea and in freshwater lakes but new research indicates that the genetic make up of 20 percent of men also puts them in the risk zone.Researchers at Malmo, Lund and Åhus University hospitals have found that toxic substances such as PCB and dioxin affect sperm production.The studies involved 680 men from Sweden, Poland, Ukraine and Greenland. Among those that had the genetic variation and had been subjected to high levels of toxic substances found in the fish, sperm counts were 40 percent lower.The researcher leading the study, Yvonne Lundberg Giwercman, argues that recommendations to avoid the consumption of the Baltic and freshwater fish should be extended to men seeking to become dads. But the National Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket) has no plans to change its recommendations."The research is very important but before we change the food recommendations for Baltic Sea fish we would like to see similar results from other research groups," said Anders Glynn at the administration to Sydsvenskan.The toxins PCB and dioxin are commonly occurring in Swedish nature but have been in decline in recent decades. In the Baltic Sea levels have however remained constant since the early 1990s and levels of mercury are increasing. The poisons are stored in humans and animals and stay in the body for a long period of time.
TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=13588&print=true
==================================================
Yad VaShem Worried by Anti-Semitism in Lithuania
10 Av 5768, 11 August 08 07:36
(IsraelNN.com) Increased anti-Semitism and Holocaust revisionism in Lithuania has prompted the Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial Center to protest to Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas. Vandals wrote anti-Semitic graffiti and drew swastikas on a building belong to Jewish organizations in the capital Vilnius on Sunday
"The public outcry has yet to yield a fair and reasonable Lithuanian response," Yad VaShem chairman Avner Shalev wrote the prime minister. "If anything, it seems that the harmful phenomenon of historical revisionism and distortion, of which the investigation of the Jewish partisans is a prime example, may actually be increasing in your country." Shalev was referring to government harassment of Dr. Yitzchak Arad, a Holocaust historian and former chairman of the Yad VaShem Directorate.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0.1&item=151302
===========================================================
Jurgita Jurgutyte: slowing economy stabilizes inflation in Lithuania
Danuta Pavilenene, BC, Vilnius, 11.08.2008.
The slowing economic growth and the weakening consumer habits also gradually stabilize the dynamic increase of prices. In July 2008, the annual inflation of Lithuania amounted to 12.2%, a decrease of 0.3% compared to the inflation in June; monthly inflation was 0.4% and the average annual inflation constituted 9.7%.
Jurgita Jurgutyte.
These figures exceeded the expected results of the forecasters, since the majority of the experts announced greater figures, reports ELTA.
Hansa expert Jurgita Jurgutyte states that the annual inflation should become stabilized, since the slowdown of economy and the pessimistic view of residents, as well as the lesser demand, will stop the increase in prices. Despite that, the temporary tranquility in the last quarter of 2008 might be disturbed by the boost in heating prices.
According to the expert, the increase in heating price will add about 1.5% to the annual inflation.
=========================================================
Not all Lithuanian schools are ready to prepare free lunches
Danuta Pavilenene, BC, Vilnius, 11.08.2008.
All the pupils at nursery and primary schools in Lithuania are to receive free lunches in schools as of September 1, 2008; however, municipalities warn that they may not be fully ready for that at the due time, as Radio Vilnius announced.
It is asserted that some schools do not have suitable and spacious enough premises to dine pupils; moreover, their cooking facilities are out of date.
Some schools lack furniture for dining halls, and others lack kitchen staff. Besides, not all municipalities are aware of how to keep record of sharing free lunches among pupils.
The Ministry of Social Security and Labour refutes the excuses made by municipalities.
The Ministry's department head for family affairs, Svetlana Kulpina, says that sufficient funds have been allocated for organizing free lunches in schools.
According to early estimates, about 200, 000 pupils will get such lunches in the new school year.
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/education/?doc=4059
==================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment