EU warns Armenia, Azerbaijan against fighting

EU president Herman Van Rompuy on Wednesday urged enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan to end frontline clashes that have raised fears of renewed war over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.

"The European Union calls on both sides strictly to respect the ceasefire and exercise restraint, on the ground and in public statements, in order to prevent a further escalation of the situation," Van Rompuy said in an address to the Armenian parliament.

Ten soldiers were killed last month in clashes along the Karabakh frontline and on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan -- the worst outbreak of violence for several years.

Armenia-backed separatists seized Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 dead, and no final peace deal has been signed since the 1994 ceasefire.

Van Rompuy said that a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict was "the key to unlocking the region's enormous development potential and the prosperity that it can bring".

He urged politicians to resist "the temptations of populist rhetoric and entrenchment" -- an apparent reference to frequent belligerent statements from both sides.

Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the disputed region by force if negotiations do not yield results, while Armenia has vowed massive retaliation against any military action.

 

EU blasts Syria over jet but warns against militarization

(L-R) French Foreign Affairs minister Laurent Fabius, Belgium's Foreign minister Didier Reynders, Slovenian Foreign Affairs minister Karl Erjavec, Luxembourg's Foreign Affairs minister Jean Asselborn and German Foreign Affairs minister Guido Westerwelle talk prior to an EU Foreign Affairs Council on June 25, 2012 at the Kirchberg conference center in Luxembourg. AFP Photo

The European Union rounded on Syria today for downing a Turkish fighter jet while warning of the dangers of military escalation ahead of NATO talks on the incident the following day.

Foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc meeting in Luxembourg also stepped up the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime, agreeing a 16th round of sanctions, this time targeting the civil service, diplomatic sources said.

Joining his EU counterparts for the first time, France's new Socialist minister Laurent Fabius blasted Damascus for shooting down a Turkish F-4 phantom jet Friday.

"This plane was not carrying arms and was on a routine flight and was shot down ... there was no prior warning, therefore this is completely unacceptable," Fabius said.

Germany's Guido Westerwelle, likewise deeming the Syrian move "unacceptable", praised Ankara for "reacting in very calm manner" and said it was "important that all forces understand that de-escalation is now decisive." On Turkey's request, NATO will hold an emergency meeting on the matter in Brussels tomorrow.

"Turkey has requested consultations under Article 4" of NATO's founding treaty under which member countries can request a meeting if their security is threatened, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said this weekend.

"Under Article 4, any ally can request consultations whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened," she added.

Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, who also expressed concern over the incident, said as she went into the talks: "We'll be looking to Turkey to be restrained in its response." EU diplomats have long warned against military options in the Syrian crisis and have been working for weeks on helping to build a credible opposition to Assad in order to find a political road out of the bloodshed.

Sweden's Carl Bildt, just back from a tour of the region with EU counterparts, reiterated the bloc's stand that a political solution was the sole current option.

"The further the violence goes on and the militarization of the conflict, the more difficult it will be to avoid an outcome that could well result in sectarian fragmentation of the entire region, with devastating consequences in the years to come," he said.

Bildt said the sanctions slapped on Damascus since the onset of civil unrest early last year were having "an indirect long term effect" on the regime by slowing the economy.

In today's fresh round of restrive measures, the EU imposed an asset freeze and travel ban against six government ministries and one individual, while clarifying an existing EU arms embargo.

The identities of those targeted will be detailed tomorrow.

Also adopted was a specific ban on insuring items embargoed for delivery to Syria, including arms shipments.

The measure follows an incident some days ago involving a British-insured Russian cargo ship carrying attack helicopters for Syria.

The United States alerted Britain to the consignment and British security services told insurers Standard Club that providing insurance for the shipment would breach EU sanctions, reports said.

Standard Club then canceled insurance for the ship as well as others in the fleet owned by Russian cargo line Femco, forcing the vessel to head home.

Iran threatens to break off nuclear talks unless West lifts oil sanctions

Ultimatum comes as the second day of talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program got under way in

Iran warned on Tuesday that Western sanctions against the country's oil exports must be lifted and that their right to a civilian nuclear program recognized, or else Tehran could break off negotiations

Iran's delegation said a negative response from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading six-power group talking with Iran, would mean "the end of the negotiations in its current configuration.

The ultimatum came as the second day of talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program got under way in Moscow, after little progress was achieved on Monday.

Ashton has said the EU will not budge on an oil embargo set to go into effect July 1 unless Tehran agrees to limit its uranium enrichment to 20 percent.

Even as Iran was threatening to end talks, plans for another meeting in China in a few weeks time were under discussion.  

Brazil/Argentina agree G20 common position, but will wait to listen to Germany

Brazil and Argentina agreed on Monday “to oppose any financial adjustment plan” and sponsor development and growth policies to face the world crisis, in the framework of the two-day G20 summit taking place in Mexico.

The announcement followed a 50 minutes meeting of President Cristina Fernandez with her Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff in Los Cabos, the Mexican resort hosting the G20 summit. Both heads of state met at the Secret Marquis hotel where the Brazilian president is staying, and were joined by their closest aides.

Following the meeting Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman acting as spokesperson said that “Argentina and Brazil share several positions when it comes to policies that favour development and growth in order to face the world economic crisis, while at the same time opposing financial adjustment plans”.

The Argentine minister added that both countries also agreed on “waiting and listening to what European countries – Germany in particular – will say during the G20 Summit.”

President Cristina Fernández arrived in Mexico on Sunday evening and her agenda was largely limited to attending a dinner hosted by Mexican President Felipe Calderón for G20 leaders and multilateral organizations’ representatives. Monday’s agenda also scheduled meetings with Russia's Vladimir Putin and France's Francoise Hollande.

The subject of Monday’s G20 first session was: “Global economy in a framework for vigorous, sustained and balanced growth” and on Tuesday: “Strengthening the international financial architecture and promoting financial inclusion”, and “Trade, job creation and growth”.

On Tuesday Argentina is scheduled to present initiatives relative to infrastructure as the engine of world growth in the framework of a discussion panel on “Development: green growth, infrastructure and good security”.

The Argentine leader also met with business people, mostly the Argentine delegation that participated at the B-20 meeting and discussed some of the conclusions on the global crisis that will be presented to the G20. Likewise she met with union leaders from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Canada and from the OECD to consider the creation of jobs and decent work conditions.

“The eyes of the world are on us” said Mexican President Felipe Calderón on the opening of the summit. “As leaders of G20, we have a great responsibility” because the world economy is facing serious challenges: “some areas are in recession, others stalled and others slowing down”.

“I trust that in this G20 we can define an Action Plan with long term vision, a truly integral plan for the sustained human development we all want” as well as “help to recover growth, create jobs and equal opportunity conditions, fairness and with justice”, added the Mexican leader.

He also underlined solidarity with the governments and peoples of Europe, “we have trust in you, we know of your great efforts, and building from those efforts and partly through our deliberations a stronger, more integrated, more united and more responsible Europe will emerge”.

The event will be closed Tuesday evening with a press conference from President Calderon and the release of the G20 Declaration followed by a presentation from President Vladimir Putin, since Russia will be hosting the next summit September 2013 in Saint Petersburg.

The Group of 20 was created in 1999 to bring together financial policymaking from traditional economic powers with the fast-growing developing economies such as China and Brazil. Its 20 members house 90% of the world economy, 80% of its trade and two-thirds of its population.

Latin America is represented by Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. The rest of the countries are Germany, Canada, US, France, India, Italy, Japan, UK, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Korea, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and the EU.

Baltic ‘UFO’: New dive, new details

A “UFO-shaped” object, found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea last year, has puzzled many. And a Swedish expedition that plunged into the deep eventually surfaced with more questions than answers.

­Covered in soot, with little “fireplace”-like structures and lying at the end of a 300-meter “runway” – this is not something you would expect to find sitting on the sea floor. And whatever you think about extraterrestrial life, “the thing” is still there and there has to be an explanation. So what could it be?

On June 19, 2011, a team of Swedish treasure hunters was exploring the bottom of the Baltic Sea with their sonars when they noticed a bizarre, disc-like structure at a depth of 90 meters. Back then, international experts failed to explain the sonar images. In 2012, after months of preparation, the Ocean X Team, as they call themselves, went back in order to unveil the mystery.

“We've heard lots of different kinds of explanations, from George Lucas's spaceship – the Millennium Falcon – to ‘It's some kind of plug to the inner world,’ like it should be hell down there or something,” The Daily Mail quoted one of the founders of the Ocean X Team, Peter Lindberg, as saying.

The massive object rises three to four meters above the seabed and is about 60 meters in diameter. Members of the expedition describe it as something round, with rugged edges and concave sides – resembling a “huge mushroom” or, if you will, the Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars.

The central part of the object has an “egg-shaped hole” leading inside. Surrounding the hole, they found odd-looking circular rock formations which looked almost “like small fireplaces” with stones covered in “something resembling soot.”

“Since no volcanic activity has ever been reported in the Baltic Sea, the find becomes even stranger,” said Lindberg in a press release at OceanExplorer.se. “As laymen, we can only speculate how this [could be] made by nature, but this is the strangest thing I have ever experienced as a professional diver.”

Another observation that the crew made in person was the 300-meter-long “trail” that they described as a “runway or a downhill path that is flattened at the seabed with the object at the end

The group says that they passed samples from the object to scientists for further examination. Other experts are studying the sonar images and processing the rest of the data from the ship. It is worth mentioning though, that sonar-based imagery has been known to become a source of confusion, when natural rock formations have been taken for foreign objects.

Being the scene of numerous battles in the past and remaining a busy maritime route, the Baltic Sea is a renowned treasure trove for shipwreck hunters. An estimated 100,000 objects are thought to rest on its floor.

EU passports for sale in Latvia

Selling your passport may not make you rich, but for poor Latvian citizens, and especially “aliens”, it proves a reliable source of additional income. Claimed lost or stolen, the documents eventually end up with illegal immigrants.

­Latvia is a small Baltic country and was a republic of the former Soviet Union. Its living standards, however, would hardly make it Europe’s primary destination for immigration.

Yet Latvia is a member of the European Union, whose citizens enjoy the privilege of visa-free travel within the EU and many other countries. Even the so-called “aliens” can travel to Europe with their “alien passports”.

Hundreds of thousands of Latvia’s residents who carry “alien passports” are people who moved to live in the then-Soviet Republic of Latvia after 1945, or their descendants. Most are Russian nationals and they are officially considered aliens, lacking many basic human rights, such as the right to vote or work in many state organizations.

This is why Latvian passports are in such demand on the black market.

Every year, 12-15,000 Latvian passports are lost or stolen – an impressive figure for a tiny nation of about 2.2 million people. Some of them, indeed, disappear by pure accident. Other Latvians are known to have held national records with over a dozen passports “lost or stolen,” Telegraf.Lv reports.

The country’s police say that intentional “loss” is the majority of all such cases. A passport can be sold for 150-200 lati (US$250-350), while getting a replacement document would cost you only 50 lati. The final “customer” will pay from 600 to 2,000 lati for the remade ID.

Most of those who sell their passports to black-market dealers are well aware of the buyers’ intentions and do not claim the “loss” until their ID finds its way abroad.

“We have also found out that those members of [certain] ethnic groups, who have acquired permits to stay in Latvia or the EU, then themselves arrange ‘channels’ for illegal immigration,” a senior member of police, Guntis Pujats, explained.

“We once exposed an Egyptian who was thinking of bringing many other Egyptians to Latvia through Russia, and finally to make their way to France with fake travel documents,” he said.

Passports which once belonged to Latvian citizens and non-citizens have now spread all over the world. They have been tracked in Germany, Lithuania, France, Sweden, the UK, Iceland, as well as the US and Canada.