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Jun 2 2006 1:31PM South Ossetia seeking to become part of Russia - Kokoity MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) - South Ossetia's aim is to merge with the Russian republic of North Ossetia and to enter the Russian Federation, the breakaway province's President Eduard Kokoity told a news conference at the Interfax central office on Friday. "The leaders and the people of South Ossetia defined their objectives a long time ago. The ultimate goal of our struggle is to restore historical justice, to merge with North Ossetia and to become part of the Russian Federation," he said. "South Ossetia has already...

01 June 2006, 12:00 'Parade of love' participants profane a Catholic church in St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, June 1, Interfax - The Catholics in St. Petersburg are outraged by an event that happened last Saturday, the Day of the City, on the square at the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria. 'The stage erected without the knowledge of St. Catherine's parish was used throughout the night for dirty dances and vulgar performances put on by stripped women and transvestites, which insulted not only the feelings of believers who came for the service but also every decent city-dweller who came for...

Pope offends Poland's Jews Correspondents in Warsaw May 27, 2006 THE Pope has upset the Jewish community in Poland by not stopping to pay tribute to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis. The heavily guarded Popemobile sped from Warsaw airport towards the Old Town district and the former ghetto area but barely slowed when it passed the memorial to the Jewish fighters. Chief Rabbi of Warsaw Michael Schudrich, the Israeli ambassador and a handful of Jewish dignitaries were left standing as Benedict XVI flashed past with a wave. Church officials said there had been no space...

London Mayor criticises Moscow Gay Pride violence 30-May-2006 Marc Shoffman The Mayor of London has condemned the violence and religious and nationalist protests that marred gay pride celebrations in Moscow last weekend. Gay activists who chose to defy a gay pride ban in the Russian capital were met with violence from religious and nationalist protesters chanting anti gay slogans and 1000 riot police aiming to stop demonstrations in the Red Square. Ken Livingstone said: 'The Russian people suffered greater casualties than any other country from Nazism - whose targets were not only Jews and Soviet citizens but also homosexuals. To...

Siberian Spring Thaw Gives Way to Jewish Cemetery Clean-up Campaign Tuesday, May 30 2006 OMSK, Russia – In following with a tradition already honored by local residents, the Jewish community of Omsk launched its spring campaign for cleaning up the city's old Jewish cemetery. While several other regions of Russia are already boasting summer weather, the snow has just melted in this part of Siberia. In this cemetery, no burials have been made for over 60 years, with some of the graves dating back to the nineteenth century. Most of the descendants of those Jews who once lived and are...

Poland Chief Rabbi: bringing far-right into government fosters racism Updated: 28/May/2006 20:17 OSWIECIM (EJP)--- Poland’s chief rabbi Michael Schudrich said Sunday an attack on him in a Warsaw street was anti-Semitic and placed part of the blame on the entry of a far-right party into Poland’s coalition government. "When you let a right-wing party into the coalition government, that empowers nationalists and those who run around shouting unpleasant things," Schudrich told journalists shortly before he was due to say the Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish, at a ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The ceremony will be headed...

EU's Lisbon objectives - World Bank 05.30.2006, 01:59 PM Most Popular Stories Best Cars For The Bucks TV Pilots That Crash Fortunes Of Kings, Queens And Dictators How Much Home $1 Million Buys Best Big Companies Most Popular Videos The Perfect Pitch Parties You'd Want To Crash Writing On The Wall Vehicles Loaded With Value Joining The Circuit WARSAW (AFX) - Poland has the worst record of new EU member states in meeting targets set by European Union leaders in Lisbon five years ago, aimed at making the EU 'the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world' by 2010, the...

Standing behind the stormy campaign around the Da Vinci Code are Masons whose aim is to marginalize the Christian Church Deacon Andrey Kurayev, professor at Moscow Theological Academy and well-known Orthodox theologian, sought to dispel some of the myths underlying and referred to in the Da Vinci Code novel, in an interview to Interfax-Religion. - The stormy campaign around the Da Vinci Code, unexpected but also intriguing for many, has unwittingly put in one’s head the thought about its possible instigators. Simply speaking, qui prodest – who benefits from it? - The Da Vinci Code is a typical conspiracy work...

29 May 2006, 14:20 Russian Foreign Minister: participants in the unauthorized gay parade should have thought about possible consequences Moscow, March 29, Interfax - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked that the march of sexual minorities in Moscow on Saturday had not been authorized by authorities. ‘All countries have laws and regulations of their own. The march was not authorized, and this is fact,’ Lavrov told the journalists on Monday. He thinks that ‘perhaps, all potential participants of this or that march should draw proper conclusions.’ “I said today that any manifestation of intolerance demanded our attention, and also in...

30 May 2006, 13:13 Moscow Patriarchate official conveys greetings to Benedict XVI from Alexy II Moscow, May 30, Interfax - A representative of the Russian Orthodox Church conveyed to Pope Benedict XVI greetings from Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. The Rev. Igor Vyzhanov, Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR) secretary for inter-Christian relations, had a talk with the pope after the divine service celebrated by the pope in Krakow last Sunday during his visit to Poland. The representative of the Russian Church was invited by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, to take part in...

29 May 2006, 15:27 Alexy II visit to Latvia is political signal - premier (updated) Riga, May 29, Interfax - The visit to Latvia of Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II is a political signal, Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said after a Monday meeting with the patriarch in Riga. "This is a very important political signal in relations between Latvia and Russia," he said. Alexy II awarded the Order of St. Prince Daniil of Moscow, 2nd Degree, to Kalvitis. Later in the day, he met with Saeima Speaker Ingrida Udre and decorated her with the Order of St....

May 28 2006 9:19AM Russian border service will be professional from 2008 - Pronichev MOSCOW. May 28 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service's border troops will change over to recruiting professionals, not conscripts from 2008, FSB First Deputy Director and border service chief Vladimir Pronichev said. "By the end of 2008 the border services will have switched over to the professional system of manning," Pronichev said in an address on the occasion of the Border-Guards Day, marked Sunday. "The emerging threats to Russia's security have prompted us to seek new approaches to organizing the border service. The Federal Security Service...

Russian TV crew barred from entering Georgia 17:15 | 25/ 05/ 2006 TBILISI, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - A crew of leading Russian channel NTV was barred from entering Georgia Thursday, NTV said. Journalist Vadim Fefilov and his cameraman, who intended to make a report about Georgia's Independence Day on May 26, were denied entry visas at the airport of Tbilisi and advised to leave Georgia as soon as possible. "I consider this a violation of human and journalists' rights," NTV correspondent in Georgia Nugzar Kereselidze said. The Georgian Foreign and Interior Ministries refused to comment on the incident.

22 May 2006, 15:00 Results of Eurovision contest shows duality in European consciousness - Russian Church Moscow, May 22, Interfax – The 2006 Eurovision contest prize going to musicians who posed on the stage as Satanists points to ‘profound contradictions’ apparent in the consciousness of the modern European man, maintains Rev. Mikhail Prokopenko, head of the communication service of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations. Last Saturday, this prestigious European contest was won by the Finnish Lordi group with the song Hard-Rock Halleluiah. ‘Their deliberately eclectic style when their words speak of one thing while their appearance and...

Monument to organizer of Jewish pogroms to be erected in Kiev A monument to Symon Petlyura will be erected in Kiev downtown. As Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper informs, the monument will be unveiled in the framework of events to honor the 80th anniversary of Petlyura’s death. The monument will be erected by December 1, 2006 at the intersection of Volodimerska Street and Taras Shevchenko Avenue in Kiev downtown. On May 16, 2005, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree ‘On Perpetuation of the Memory of Ukrainian People’s Republic and Western-Ukrainian People’s Republic Outstanding Figures’, in which Symon Petlyura was named among outstanding...

Russian Church abroad backs reunion with Moscow Patriarchate San Francisco, May 17, Interfax - A San Francisco session of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad has approved a resolution proposing a reunion with the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian Church abroad said on its official website. The council will also adopt an act on interaction with the Moscow Patriarchate. Last week's All-Diaspora Convention agreed that "this creative deed must culminate in the restoration of the long-sought unity of the Russian Church," the resolution reads.

16 May 2006, 14:32 Orthodox Muscovites will resist gay parade if it ever takes place Moscow, May 16, Interfax - The Union of Orthodox Citizens believes that the protest against gay parade would support Russian demographic policy. ‘The latest address of the President to the Federal Assembly poses the demographic issue as essential for Russia’ sovereignty and national survival. Any apology of sexual perversion, including the so-called gay parade runs contrary to the presidential address,’ the Union’s statement circulated on Tuesday reads. The authors of the document are convinced that ‘if the authorities do not enforce the law to put...

15 May 2006, 15:02 Propaganda of homosexuality equal to suicide - expert Moscow, May 15, Interfax - Serafim Melentyev, head of the World Development Institute, actively backed the Russian Orthodox Church on the inadmissibility of advertising homosexuality. "Advertising homosexuality taking into consideration the disastrous demographic situation in the country is equal to suicide, as the patriarch said. In my opinion, this is the best wording," Melentyev said at a press conference on Monday in Moscow. This "should be the position not only of the church, but also of society," he said. "Today Russians are dying. And it is evident that...

May 15 2006 6:17PM Russians becoming more optimistic - poll MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax) - Russians are becoming more optimistic, a poll conducted by the VTsIOM All-Russia Public Opinion Center shows. In April, the number of those who believe that their life will improve grew by around 30% compared with March, while the number of those expecting things to become worse dropped from 16% to 13%. Forty-three percent of respondents claimed they were satisfied with their lives. Eleven percent of those questioned were optimistic about the economic outlook, 31% negative.

SAN FRANCISCO: May 11, 2006 Resolution of the IV All-Diaspora Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Christ is Risen! We, the participants of the IV All-Diaspora Council, having gathered in the God-preserved city of San Francisco, in the blessed presence of the Protectress of the Russian Diaspora, the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God, and the holy relics of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, in trembling recognition of the duty laid upon us, in obedience to our Archpastor, Christ, with complete trust and love of the pastors and laity to our First Hierarch, His...