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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire was in doubt Friday after Kyiv officials dismissed the move as a ploy but didn’t clarify whether Ukrainian troops would follow suit. Moscow also didn’t say whether it would hit back if Ukraine kept fighting. The Russian-declared truce in the nearly 11-month war began at noon Friday and was to continue through midnight Saturday Moscow time (0900 GMT Friday to 2100 GMT Saturday; 4 a.m. EST Friday to 4 p.m. EST Saturday). There were no immediate reports...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged young Russians to observe the traditional moral values of Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated in Russia on January 7, according to the old calendar. ''The positive influence of Christmas celebrations on the creative and public activities of Russian citizens is growing from year to year. It is important that the younger generation accepts the traditional moral values,'' Mr Putin said in a message greeting the Orthodox Christians and Russians on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas. He attended a Christmas service in the Transfiguration Cathedral in Yakutsk (Sabha republic), in Siberia yesterday, where he was...

MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - NATO troops in Kosovo secured the fire-gutted Serbian church in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica on Saturday as dozens of Serbs crossed the bridge into the Albanian-dominated south to mark Orthodox Christmas. Split into Albanian and Serb halves, Mitrovica in northern Kosovo has seen some of the worst clashes since the end of the 1998-99 war and the town's division by French troops at the Ibar River. Serbs holding candles attend a service for Orthodox Christmas in the fire-gutted Serbian church in Mitrovica, 40 kilometres north of the Kosovo capital Pristina, January 7, 2006....

PONTEFICATIONS OUR SEVENTH OF JANUARY IS IN ORTHODOX RUSSIA the Christmas day that December 25 has become in the rest of the Christian world. The difference between these two Christmases is one of calendars. The Russian Church follows the ancient Roman method of dating imposed by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. The West follows the calendar established by Roman Catholic Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. On the day the Gregorian calendar was imposed, it differed from the old Julian calendar it replaced by 10 days. The Russian Orthodox faithful will be celebrating from January 7 until January 19, Theophany, the...

BOSTON -- I'll never get to relay my appreciation properly to Pope Gregory XIII. It's not entirely my fault: He died on April 10, 1585. Not to mention, communication between the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers is tough enough with only a couple of generations separating them, never mind the 21 generations between Pope Gregory and me. Still, this year I'd like to reach out through the gauzy haze of the netherworld is to thank him for the gift he sent me this week (inadvertently, I'm sure): A second Christmas. I'm not complaining: Christmas was great this year. My first...

Turkish nationalists gatecrash Orthodox Bosporus celebration AFP: 1/6/2005 ISTANBUL, Jan 6 (AFP) - Turkish nationalists chanting slogans and waving the flag of an extreme right-wing party Thursday tried to disrupt a Greek Orthodox religious ceremony here called the benediction of the waters of the Bosporus, eyewitnesses said. As part of a tradition dating back to Byzantine times, a crucifix is thrown into the waters and young divers plunge in, competing to recover it. Some 60 nationalists interrupted the proceedings waving flags of the National Action Party (MHP) and chanting: "This is Turkey here, like it or leave it." Hundreds of...

7/1/05 Orthodox Christmas day The difference in Christmas celebrations stretches back to 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII ruled the Catholic Church should follow a new calendar – called the Gregorian calendar, more in sync with the sun than the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar was established by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. Because it was the pope who ruled on it, many churches not in sync with the Vatican ignored it, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox among them. Protestants accepted the new calendar in the early 1700s. In 1922, the patriarch of Constantinople decided to follow the new Gregorian calendar in...

ISTANBUL (AFP) -- Turkish nationalists chanting slogans and waving the flag of an extreme right-wing party Thursday tried to disrupt a Greek Orthodox religious ceremony here called the benediction of the waters of the Bosporus, eyewitnesses said. As part of a tradition dating back to Byzantine times, a crucifix is thrown into the waters and young divers plunge in, competing to recover it. Some 60 nationalists interrupted the proceedings waving flags of the National Action Party (MHP) and chanting: "This is Turkey here, like it or leave it." Hundreds of members of Istanbul's Greek Orthodox community attended the traditional ceremony...

The Orthodox Christmas season this month has been marred in Kosovo by a series of violent incidents, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. A church was broken into and several items and some money were stolen, and a bus was attacked by local Albanians at the Decani monastery after the Christmas service. The attack on the church follows an earlier attack in November 2003. Officials of the United Nations administration (UNMIK) have condemned the attacks, the latest in a series since 1999 for which no arrests have ever been made. Speaking to Forum 18 about the attack on the bus,...