Μήνυμα στους Αγγλους με το... Γρίβα έστειλε μέσω Κύπρου ο Πούτιν

Με δικά του έξοδα ο Πρόεδρος Πούτιν χάρισε δύο δώρα με ιδιαίτερο συμβολισμό στον Κύπριο πρόεδρο Νίκο Αναστασιάδη, κατά την επίσκεψη του τελευταίου στη Μόσχα.

Το πρώτο είναι μια σπάνια εικόνα της Παναγίας της Οδηγήτριας, που κλάπηκε από την Κύπρο και αγοράστηκε από συλλέκτη στη Ρωσία και το δεύτερο ένα δακτυλογραφημένο κείμενο της διαταγής, που εξέδωσε ο αρχηγός της ΕΟΚΑ, Γεώργιος Γρίβας «Διγενής», για τερματισμό του αγώνα κατά των Άγγλων το 1959 όταν βρέθηκε η πολιτική λύση στο κυπριακό.

Russia Is Not Bluffing With Turkish Stream Project

During his visit to Ankara in December 2014, Vladimir Putin announced that South Stream—a large pipeline that would have carried Europe-bound Russian gas under the Black Sea and across Southeastern Europe—had been terminated. A major reason for South Stream’s cancellation was attributed to the exit from the project of Bulgaria, one of the key countries through which this pipeline would pass. Instead, Russia and its regional partners, including Turkey, are now discussing a new pipeline project—Turkish Stream, sometimes referred to as Turk Stream.

It is becoming increasingly evident that Russia and Turkey want to ensure that the Turkish Stream project has a solid economic foundation. During his most recent visit to Ankara, Aleksei Miller, the CEO of Russia’s Gazprom, met with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. In the course of their meeting, further technical details of Turkish Stream were revealed: the pipeline will have a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, 15.75 bcm of which will be marketed in Turkey and the other 47.25 bcm is to be marketed to Europe through Greece. This gas pipeline is scheduled to be incorporated into an inter-governmental agreement during the second quarter of this year, and the first transmission of gas is planned to take place in December 2016. According to Miller, this is a fairly realistic timeline.

Kerry: Netanyahu Wrong on Iraq and Wrong on Iran

The nation’s top diplomat offered a decidedly undiplomatic take in describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a potential nuclear deal with Iran.

“Israel is safer today with the added time we have given and the stoppage of the advances in the nuclear program than they were before we got that agreement, which by the way the prime minister opposed,” Secretary of State John Kerry said during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing Wednesday. “He was wrong.”

A Look Back at the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Investigation

On the morning of Feb. 26, 1993, a massive truck bomb ripped a hole almost 100 feet across the B-2 level of the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center's North Tower. The blast wave was so powerful that it penetrated five stories of the reinforced concrete building. In addition to causing structural damage, the explosion destroyed or heavily damaged hundreds of vehicles parked in the garage. That such a powerful explosion killed only six people is nothing short of miracle, for the attackers had a goal much more grandiose.

They wanted to topple the North Tower onto the South Tower to destroy them both and kill thousands. Had a device of the same magnitude been detonated at street level during rush hour, it would have likely killed scores if not hundreds of people and wounded perhaps thousands more.