EU court says Israel settlement goods must be labelled

Yahoo – AFP, Damon WAKE, November 12, 2019

France published guidelines in 2016 saying products from Israeli settlements in the
West Bank and Golan Heights must carry labels making their precise origin
clear (AFP Photo/HAZEM BADER)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU's top court ruled Tuesday that food products from occupied Palestinian territories must be labelled as such, drawing an angry response from Israel which slammed a "double standard".

The European Court of Justice said that under EU rules on food labelling, it must be clear where products are from -- particularly if they come from Israeli settlements.

That way, it said, consumers can make choices based on "ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law".

The ECJ ruling effectively backs the EU guidelines issued in 2015 on labelling goods from Israeli-occupied areas, which also prompted a furious response. At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared them to the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses.

The Luxembourg-based court ruled after France's top tribunal asked for clarification of rules on labelling goods from the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied Palestinian land, as well as the Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria in 1967.

"Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin, accompanied, where those foodstuffs come from an Israeli settlement within that territory, by the indication of that provenance," said an ECJ statement announcing its decision.

France published guidelines in 2016 saying products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Golan Heights must carry labels making their precise origin clear.

This was challenged by the Organisation Juive Europeene (European Jewish Organisation) and Psagot, a company that runs vineyards in occupied territories.

Israel's foreign ministry issued a statement Tuesday saying it "strongly rejects" the ruling.

"The ruling's entire objective is to single out and apply a double standard against Israel," it said.

"There are over 200 ongoing territorial disputes across the world, yet the (European Court of Justice) has not rendered a single ruling related to the labelling of products originating from these territories."

But a spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, insisted the ruling "does not concern products from Israel itself". It would not affect the privileged trading status the Jewish state has under its association agreement with the bloc, she added.

"The EU does not support any form of boycott or sanctions against Israel and the EU rejects attempts by the campaigns of the so-called Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to isolate Israel," spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.

Elsewhere, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Saeb Erekat, welcomed the ruling but urged the EU to go further.

"Our demand is not only for the correct labelling reflecting the certificate of origin of products coming from illegal colonial settlements, but for the banning of those products from international markets."

'Ethical considerations'

The court said that labelling products as from the "State of Israel" when in fact they come from "territories... occupied by that State" could mislead consumers.

The court added that EU regulations on labelling the origin of goods were intended to allow consumers to make "informed choices" -- not just on health, economic, environmental and social grounds, "but also to ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law".

"Such considerations could influence consumers' purchasing decisions," the ECJ said.

On the issue of Israeli settlements, the court said "they give concrete expression to a policy of population transfer conducted by that State outside its territory, in violation of the rules of general international humanitarian law".

Consumers might be misled if it was not made clear that products originated in these settlements, the court added.

But Francois-Henri Briard, the lawyer for Psagot, condemned the ruling, saying it catered to "political prejudices".

"If such labelling is applied to Israeli products, surely it will also need to be applied to scores of other countries around the world who could be argued to be in violation of international law," he said in a statement.

Francois Kalifat of the CRIF umbrella association of French Jewish groups called the ruling "discriminatory and intolerable".

He said it would strengthen the BDS movement, which calls for a broad-ranging boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

Serbs tear down contested wall in divided Kosovo town

Yahoo – AFP, February 5, 2017

Bulldozers tear down a concrete wall in the Kosovo town of Mitrovica on February 5,
2017 (AFP Photo/Armend NIMANI)

Kosovska Mitrovica (Kosovo) (AFP) - Serbs in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica on Sunday began tearing down a concrete wall on the banks of the Ibar river that had drawn the ire of the Kosovar authorities.

The mayor of the city's Serb-dominated northern sector, Goran Rakic, had said the barrier was built last month to protect a new pedestrian zone near a bridge that connects to the southern zone, home to most of the city's ethnic Albanian population.

But the two-metre-high (six and a half feet) wall, stretching some 100 metres, was seen by many as an effort to cement the town's divisions.

On Sunday, two bulldozers were employed by a crew of workers to start knocking down the barrier, an AFP journalist reported.

The move was the first evidence of a thaw between Belgrade and Pristina after weeks of strained relations, and came after EU-sponsored talks between leaders of the two sides in Brussels last week.

"It's an extremely good sign, showing that both sides can reach an agreement given sufficient political will," said Nataliya Apostolova, the EU representative to Kosovo.

Tensions had been running high in Kosovo since last month, when Belgrade sent a train towards Kosovo painted in the colours of the Serbian flag, bearing the words "Kosovo is Serbia" in multiple languages, and decorated inside with Serbian Orthodox imagery.

Kosovo called it a "provocation", and the train was stopped from crossing the border over fears it would be attacked, according to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

Members of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority were also outraged by the arrest in France in January of former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, under an international warrant issued by Serbia.

Belgrade wants to try him for alleged war crimes committed against civilians during the 1990s conflict.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian insurgents fought Serbian forces in 1998-1999. The former province unilaterally declared independence in 2008, but Serbia denies Kosovo's sovereignty.

Rita Bosaho: Spain's first black lawmaker

A nurse born in Equatorial Guinea is now a lawmaker in Spain. DW's Lauren Frayer reports on how she is helping the western European country to nudge back the frontiers of diversity.

Deutsche Welle, 13 March 2016

"I was born in Equatorial Guinea when it was a Spanish colony," explains Rita Bosaho. "My parents died when I was very young, and I came to live with a foster family in Spain."

Bosaho's foster father was in the military, so they moved around, living in several Spanish cities. She was the only black child in a white foster family and in all of her schools, until university.

Compared with the rest of Europe, Spain is a relatively homogenous society. It has traditionally sent emigrants abroad, rather than receiving them, especially in the 1970s, when Bosaho was growing up. She is now 50.

She says she credits her foster parents with teaching her the values of equality and justice. She became a hospital nurse and volunteered with disadvantaged populations of Roma and other minorities in the rough northern barrios of Alicante, on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

Rita Bosaho is a lawmaker for Podemos, which came third in the December 2015
elections. Spain still has no government

Then, two years ago, when Spain's new left-wing political party, Podemos, began searching for diverse, accomplished people willing to go into politics, Bosaho signed up.

'Lots of people don't understand I'm Spanish'

In elections on December 20, 2015, she won a seat in Spain's parliament becoming the first person of color, male or female, ever to do so in modern Spanish history.

Bosaho is still coming to terms with her newfound fame.

"I feel humbled and proud, and hope I can empower minorities," she says. "There are lots of people who don't understand that I'm Spanish. They see that I'm black and think those two things can't go together."

But the Spanish population is changing. More than 10 percent are immigrants who've become Spanish citizens, though most are lighter skinned, from Latin America or Eastern Europe.

Spain received a wave of Latino immigrants in the 1990s, during its economic boom years, when there were ample jobs in construction and home health care. Spanish law allows citizens of most former Spanish colonies, many of which are in Latin America, to obtain Spanish passports within just two years.

Under-represented in politics

Some of those Latinos returned to their countries of origin after Spain's economy began faltering in 2008. Spanish unemployment remains stuck above 20 percent, and many immigrants worry they are over-represented in the jobless ranks while under-represented in politics.

At a recent community gathering in Valencia, on Spain's Mediterranean coast, immigrants from several Latin American countries packed into a local Podemos office to meet Bosaho, their new lawmaker.

"I'm so proud to see a woman, an African woman, no less, representing us in parliament," says Patricia Villalba, an unemployed 58-year-old originally from Ecuador. "Immigrants should be more visible in Spanish society."

Rita Bosaho answering questions from high school students in Alicante

Europe has struggled with an influx of migrants and asylum seekers that brought more than 1 million people to its shores in 2015, with more than 140,000 more following since January. Many are fleeing the war in Syria, but economic migrants have also joined their ranks.

Arab and African migrants and refugees typically want to go to more prosperous northern Europe, and while Spain has agreed to accept more than 17,000 refugees under European Union quota plans, just a small fraction of those have arrived from landing zones in Greece and Italy. Madrid's city hall is nevertheless draped in a "Refugees Welcome" banner.

Unlike in other parts of Europe, there is no major far-right, anti-immigrant political movement here, though racism exists. In 2014, a banana was hurled at a Brazilian soccer player in Spain's Villareal stadium, and spectators taunted a Spanish team's Senegalese player by making monkey noises.

Bosaho's own party, Podemos, has been criticized for promising dignity to unemployed protesters in the street but not yet backing that up with policy. Bosaho has yet to author any legislation. But she's changing perceptions about those who do.

The stereotype of a Spanish politician "is always a man, the typical white man," says Aitana Christensen Ribera, an 18-year-old high school student who met Bosaho when the lawmaker visited her high school. "And now you have her! That's the new politics."

But Bosaho is aware of the scope of the challenge she faces.

"People in Spain see me differently," she says. "And I worry they value me differently. How can I convince people I'm Spanish, just like them?"

Joy as Turkish election result puts pro-Kurdish party into parliament

Initial results from Sunday’s election reveal the Peoples’ Democratic party will take 80 of 550 seats

The Guardian, Reuters in Diyarbakir, Sunday 7 June

A man waves the Kurdish flag to celebrate election results of the pro-Kurdish
Peoples’s Democracy party in Diyarbakir. Photograph: Emre Tazegul/AP

Thousands of jubilant Kurds flooded the streets of Diyarbakir, south east Turkey,on Sunday, setting off fireworks and waving flags as the pro-Kurdish opposition looked likely to enter parliament as a party for the first time.

The Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) said initial results from Sunday’s election showed it would take 80 of 550 seats, a stunning result for a party that pollsters had said would struggle to cross the required 10% threshold.

It also marks a major setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had hoped for a crushing victory for the AK party he founded, allowing it to change the constitution and give him broad executive powers.

Supporters of the HDP celebrate after initial results of the Turkish
parliamentary elections. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

Erdogan had repeatedly lashed out at the HDP and its charismatic leader Selahattin Demirtaş before the elections.

“This result shows that this country has had enough. Enough of Erdoğan and his anger,” said Seyran Demir, a 47-year-old housewife who was among the thousands who gathered in the streets around the HDP’s provincial headquarters. “I am so full of joy that I can’t speak properly.” 

The crowds brought traffic to a standstill in parts of the city. Elsewhere, people drove through sidestreets hanging out of car windows and waving HDP flags. Men fired pistols into the air, a traditional sign of celebration.

Just two days earlier, bombs tore through a HDP rally in Diyarbakir, killing two and wounding at least 200.

The HDP had looked to reach beyond Turkey’s roughly 20% Kurdish population, attempting to woo centre-left and secular voters disillusioned with Erdoğan.

“The reason the HDP has won this many votes is because it has not excluded any members of this country, unlike our current rulers,” said 25-year-old Siar Senci. “It has embraced all languages, all ethnicities and members of all faiths and promised them freedom.”

The HDP’s entrance into parliament as a party – previously candidates ran as independents to skirt the 10% threshold – could also herald a step forward for the Kurdish peace process.

People celebrate election results of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’s Democracy
party. Photograph: Emre Tazegul/AP

Ankara launched peace talks with the militant Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) two years ago. The PKK took up arms in 1984 in an insurgency for greater autonomy that has killed 40,000 people.

“We have waited for this day for years. During those dark times, I wondered if I could see Turks and Kurds living in solidarity in my own lifetime. Thank God it happened,” said 63-year-old Ersin Ates.

“Now we don’t want another single bullet to be shot. Our fight will continue in the parliament.”

Leyla Zana was the first Kurdish woman elected to Turkey’s

parliament, in 1991. Photograph: Tarik Tinazay/AFP/Getty Images

Related Articles:

Record number of women elected to Turkish parliament


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

The Unthinkable… Politics, A Review

Humans will begin to search for integrity and fairness and it's going to happen in the places you never expect. I said this last week, so this is a review. There'll come a time when you will demand this of your politics - fairness and integrity. So when the candidates start calling each other names, you will turn your back on them and they won't get any votes. They're going to get the point real fast, don't you think? How about that?

Let me give you another potential. This country that I sit in right now [USA] will set the mold for that particular attribute. I have no clock. Watch for the youngsters to set this in motion, and they will, for they are the voters of tomorrow and they do not want the energy of today. To some of them, it's so abominable they won't even register to vote in this energy. You're going to see this soon. That was number five.. ..."

Over 20,000 call for Macedonian government to step down

Yahoo – AFP, Jasmina Mironski and Jovan Matic, 17 May 2015

People wave Macedonian and Albanian flags during an opposition rally 

in Skopje on May 17, 2015 (AFP Photo/Robert Atanasovski)

Skopje (AFP) - More than 20,000 people rallied in Macedonia's capital on Sunday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's government which is grappling with a deep political crisis and an outbreak of violence.

Waving Macedonian, but also Albanian flags, opposition protesters chanted "Victory! Victory!" at the demonstration in Skopje, the culmination of months of wrangling between Gruevski and his centre-left opponents that has already sparked clashes.

Macedonia's problems deepened last weekend when 18 people were killed in a shootout in the northern town of Kumanovo between police and ethnic Albanian rebels.

The main opposition leader, Zoran Zaev, has vowed that Sunday's protest will be peaceful, although the police brought in large supplies of anti-riot gear.

On a warm day, volunteers left bottles of water in front of the government building, in expectation of a long day.

Zaev said protesters would remain in front of the government building until Gruevski -- who has been in power for nine years -- and his cabinet stands down.

"The protest will continue. Some 4,600 activists, mostly young people, have said 'we'll stay regardless of whether you will or not'," he told the NOVA online television channel.

At the protest, Aleksandar Krstevski, a 33-year-old psychologist from Kumanovo, told AFP: "We will stay as long as it takes, until the final victory, until the prime minister's resignation."

Carrying a placard with the inscription "Goodbye Nikola", 29-year old Jelena said "there is a need to finish with this government."

The unrest last weekend was the worst in the former Yugoslav republic since its 2001 conflict between the government and ethnic Albanian rebels.

Eight police officers were among the 18 dead.

Thirty alleged gunmen, including 18 ethnic Albanians from neighbouring Kosovo, have been charged with terror offences following the shootout.

But the opposition and analysts have suggested the timing of the violence was suspicious, given the huge pressure on Gruevski's government.

Zaev's opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) is calling for the government to resign, accusing the ruling party of wiretapping 20,000 people, including politicians, journalists and religious leaders.

Zaev has released snippets of the alleged recordings that appear to show widespread government corruption, a murder cover-up and other wrongdoings.

His party has also boycotted parliament since an election in April last year, in which it claims Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party committed fraud.

"The time has come to show that we no longer want to live in a state led by Gruevski," the SDSM said in a statement.

Gruevski has remained defiant, insisting in an interview Saturday that he would not resign.

People take part in a rally in central Skopje on May 17, 2015 demanding that 

the government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski step down (AFP Photo/

Robert Atanasovski)

His government denies making the phone recordings released by Zaev, but not that the voices are authentic, although it says some are heavily edited or taken out of context.

The government in turn accuses Zaev and his followers of spying and of seeking to destabilise the country. It is due to hold a rival street protest on Monday.

'Survival manoeuvre'

Gruevski, Zaev and ethnic Albanian party leaders held talks this week to resolve the crisis, which could further hamper Macedonia's stalled bid for EU and NATO membership.

All sides pledged to condemn violence and support democratic values, but there was little sign of a serious resolution.

Two ministers and the intelligence chief resigned on Tuesday, after being accused of involvement in the wire-tapping scandal.

But Muamer Pajaziti, a Macedonian professor on European integration at Pristina University, said the resignations were only "a survival manoeuvre" by an increasingly unpopular government.

"The opposition and the public will not accept it as a solution. There is a critical mass for change led by the opposition. Slowly, on a larger scale, there are preparations for a broad anti-government coalition," Pajaziti told AFP.

Ethnic Albanians make up about one quarter of Macedonia's 2.1 million population.

Macedonia obtained EU candidate status in 2005, but is yet to begin accession talks.

Related Article:

PM Gruevski to meet opponents as protests continue over Macedonia wiretapping

Macedonian ministers, intelligence chief resign

Macedonia's interior and transport ministers, as well as its intelligence chief, have resigned following a weekend raid which left eight police officers dead. The government is also under fire over illegal wiretapping.

Deutsche Welle, 13 May 2015

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski accepted the resignations of his interior and transport ministers and his intelligence chief Tuesday, ahead of a large anti-government rally over series of scandals involving top officials, set for Sunday.

In recent months, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska and intelligence chief Saso Mijalkov both stirred criticism from the opposition over their alleged involvement in illegal wiretapping and parallel structures inside the security forces.

The country's transport minister Mile Janakieski also quit on Tuesday.

The three top officials were among Gruevski's closest allies inside the government, and had been part of the administration since his party took power in 2006. Mijalkov, director of the Administration for Security and Counterintelligence, is also the prime minister's cousin.

Truth 'at our side'

In his letter of resignation, Mijalkov said he was stepping down to help in overcoming the current political crisis, which he claims was imposed by the opposition. He added that he was "aware that the truth and arguments are on our side," and that he would always be "at the frontlines" for his homeland.

Jankuloska and Janakieski also cited the political crisis as a reason for their resignations.

Political and ethnic tensions

The cabinet reshuffle follows a bloody shootout in the northern city of Kumanovo over the weekend, which claimed the lives of eight police officers and 14 alleged Albanian terrorists. The raid heightened fears of ethnically charged conflict in the former Yugoslav republic.

Almost one third of the 2.1 million people living in Macedonia are ethnic Albanians, and distrust between the groups runs deep, even with Albanians represented in the government.

Some of Gruevski's opponents claim he orchestrated the incident in order to distract the public from allegations of corruption.

NATO, which helped diffuse the 2001 Albanian insurgency, has called for restraint and a "transparent investigation" of this latest incident.

On Monday, EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said the attack should not distract attention from Macedonia's "very serious internal political situation" or be used "to introduce ethnic tensions."

The parliament is set to discuss replacements for the two ministers on Wednesday.

dj/cmk (MIA, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Estonia votes amid jitters over Ukraine crisis

Estonians are going to the polls in elections dominated by economic issues. But the vote is also marked by unease over neighboring Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

Deutsche Welle, 1 March 2015

Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas (Foto: dpa)

Estonians were voting on Sunday in parliamentary elections that opinion polls suggest are likely to see the current center-left coalition under Prime Minister Taavi Roivas (pictured above) returned to power.

A TNS Emor opinion poll released on Saturday showed Roivas' pro-market Reform Party in the lead with a predicted 26 percent of the vote, ahead of the Center Party of Edgar Savisaar on 22 percent.

Roivas' coalition partners, the Social Democrats, were on 19 percent. Seven other parties are also in the running at Sunday's vote, including the conservative IRL, which commanded 16 percent in the pre-election survey

The main parties have all campaigned on social issues, with promises to increase the minimum wage, reducing taxes for low earners and improving family benefits figuring largely in their platforms.

Russia's long shadow

However, the vote is also being overshadowed by fears over ex-Soviet master Russia's actions in Ukraine, following Moscow's annexation of Crimea earlier last year amid widespread allegations that it is fomenting and militarily supporting a separatist insurgency in the east of the country.

Many in Estonia are concerned that the Kremlin could attempt to destabilize other nations that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Savisaar, 64, a former Communist Party member and current mayor of the capital city Tallinn, alienated many Estonians last year by supporting the Crimean annexation, but still enjoys considerable backing among the ethnic Russians who make up a quarter of the Baltic country's population of 1.3 million.

It is unlikely, however, that his party, which in some earlier polls scored better than the government coaltion, would find partners with which to govern in case of victory.

'New Nordic nation'

Roivas - who at 35 is the youngest head of government in the European Union - has promised to turn Estonia into a "new Nordic country" by boosting economic growth in the eurozone state.

NATO put on a display of power in Narva

He has also emphasized that Estonia's NATO membership gives it security against any threat emanating from Russia, a view publicly shared by his defense minister, Sven Mikser of the Social Democrats.

To mark Estonia's Independence Day, the US and other NATO troops paraded on Tuesday through the city of Narva on the Russian border in what was seen as a demonstration of solidarity within the military alliance.

Ninety percent of the 60,000 people living in Narva, one of the poorest cities in the EU, are ethnic Russians.

tj/kms (AFP, dpa)

Related Article:

Estonia's governing party wins parliamentary election - New

Top U.N. Court Rejects Balkan Genocide Claims

Naharnet Newsdesk, AFP, 3 Feb 2015

The U.N.'s highest court on Tuesday rejected rival claims of genocide by former foes Croatia and Serbia in landmark rulings over the bloody Balkans wars of the 1990s.

International Court of Justice chief judge Peter Tomka dismissed Zagreb's claim that Serb forces committed genocide during Croatia's war of independence.

He made a similar ruling in a counter-claim by Belgrade over a Croatian counter-offensive that forced 200,000 Serbs to flee after the last major battle of the 1991-1995 war.

The case had been described by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic as perhaps one of the "most important events" determining his country's relations with Croatia.

Zagreb dragged Belgrade before the ICJ in 1999 on genocide charges linked to the war in Croatia during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Serbia was accused of ethnic cleansing as a "form of genocide" in the town of Vukovar and other areas, leading to large numbers of Croats being displaced, killed or tortured and their property destroyed.

About 20,000 people died in the conflict, one of several bloody wars that shook the Balkans in the 1990s.

Vukovar was captured after a three-month-long attack by the Yugoslav army (JNA) and Serb rebels.

After its fall, about 22,000 non-Serbs were expelled, and about 350 people from the Vukovar region are still reported missing.

Zagreb had wanted the ICJ judges to order Belgrade to pay compensation.

Belgrade responded with a counter-suit in 2010, saying about 200,000 ethnic Serbs were forced to flee when Croatia launched a military operation to retake its territory in 1995.

Following Zagreb's counter-offensive, called Operation Storm, the proportion of ethnic Serbs in Croatia shrank from 12 percent to four percent.

Belgrade was outraged in 2012 when Operation Storm's Croatian military commander, Ante Gotovina, was acquitted on appeal before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

"The irony is that Croatia... which with its forceful separatism, triggered an avalanche of the horrid civil war in the former Yugoslavia, is accusing someone else of genocide," Serbia said in a statement as the case was being heard last year.

So far the ICJ, which rules in disputes between states, has recognized only one genocide case since opening its doors in 1946.

Genocide is the most serious of international crimes but also the hardest to prove.

In 2007 the court ruled that genocide had taken place in 1995, at Srebrenica in neighboring Bosnia, when almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and their bodies dumped in mass graves by Bosnian Serb troops that overran a U.N.-protected enclave.

The decisions in the current case, which was heard in March last year, were reached by a 17-judge bench.

Both Belgrade and Zagreb had said ahead of the verdict that they would accept the ruling.

Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic had said that Zagreb's main goal was to "present what happened in the war and that was aggression against Croatia".

Serbia's Dacic said on Sunday: "This will be one of perhaps the most important events for our bilateral relations with Croatia."

"It will probably be the end of a process that has lasted for 15-20 years (and) will put an end to both sides' fight to prove who the worst criminal is."

"Maybe we'll have an opportunity to leave the past behind and turn towards the future."

Related Article:

ICJ dismisses genocide claims by Serbia, Croatia

China arrests 10 Turkish nationals on suspicion of aiding terror suspects

Arrests were made as suspects headed to Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to reports

theguardian.com, Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, Wednesday 14 January 2015

Passengers board a flight at Shanghai Pudong airport. Photograph: Greg Baker/AP

Shanghai police have detained 10 Turkish nationals for supplying fake passports to terror suspects from China’s Xinjiang region, state media has reported.

The police arrested an additional 11 Chinese nationals in November, according to the state-run Global Times newspaper. Nine allegedly purchased falsified Turkish passports for 60,000 yuan (£6,384) each and two helped facilitate the transactions. Many of the accused are ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority group.

Ethnic violence in Xinjiang – a sprawling, sparsely populated region in China’s far north-west – has killed at least 400 people over the past two years. Beijing has blamed a number of attacks, which include market bombings, riots, sieges of police and government offices, on religious extremism and the influence of pernicious foreign groups. Uighur groups abroad frequently describe them as a desperate stand against religious and cultural repression.

Police apprehended the suspects at the Shanghai Pudong airport as they attempted to leave China, some of them bound for Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the newspaper. One of the suspects had “repeatedly broadcast audio and visual materials to incite ethnic hatred and ethnic prejudice,” it said.

Michael Clarke, a Xinjiang expert at Griffith University in Australia, said that if the report is true, the arrests would mark an unprecedented case of China arresting foreign nationals in connection with Xinjiang-related violence.

“Turkey, for the Uighurs, has long been seen as a clear cultural connection, linguistically and so forth,” he said. “I suppose there’s ideological sympathy as well for the Uighurs from Turkey. But I haven’t seen evidence before that Turkish nationals were travelling to China to support Uighurs within Xinjiang.

“One big question is, how will this affect China’s relationship with Turkey itself? Over the past decade there has been a strengthening of the relationship on a number of levels: economic, diplomatic and security as well. If this emerges to be correct – that Turkish individuals are involved in terrorist activities in China– that would seem to be a fairly big issue in the bilateral relationship.”

Over the past year, authorities in south-east Asia have arrested hundreds of Uighurs travelling through the region on fake Turkish passports. In March 2014, Thai authorities detained more than 200 Uighurs at a human smuggling camp. Many of them purported to be Turkish, and some claimed to seek political asylum. In September, Indonesian police arrested four Uighurs, also on Turkish passports; police said that they planned to meet an Indonesian jihadi with ties to Isis. Details of the case remain murky. In October, Malaysian police detained 155 Uighurs crammed into two tiny apartments in Kuala Lumpur.

Related Article:

Turkish nationals held over failed escape of Xinjiang terror suspects

Turkey allows first new Christian church since 1923

For the first time in over 90 years, Turkey has permitted the construction of a new Christian church. Since the end of the Ottoman empire in 1923, only renovations of existing churches had been allowed.

Deutsche Welle, 3 Jan 2015

Pope Francis celebrates a Mass inside the Holy spirit Cathedral in Istanbul,
Turkey, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014

At a meeting of religious representatives in Istanbul on Friday evening, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Syriac Christian church will be built on state-owned land in the Istanbul district of Yesilkoy, which already has Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic churches. The construction work, however, will be paid for by the Syriac group.

There are currently approximately 100,000 Christians in Turkey, which has an almost exclusively Muslim population of 80 million.

Although Christians and other religious minorities are allowed to practice their religion in Turkey, they continue to face restrictions.

The Orthodox Church, for example, is forbidden from training its priests, and foreign clerics find it difficult to obtain work permits.

The Alevi sect of Islam has also come up against restrictions in its fight to have its places of worship, known as cemevi, recognized as equivalent to mosques.

ksb/nm (AFP, dpa)

Pope Francis is welcomed by Mufti of Istanbul, Rahmi Yaran (R) outside Sultan
 Ahmet mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque in Istanbul November 29, 2014.

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Pope meets Orthodox leader at close of Turkish trip

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Pope and Welby joined by imams and rabbis for anti-slavery declaration

Pope Francis and other religious leaders at the Vatican. Photograph: AP

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."