During Friday night single shot has been heard from the school in the village of Aracinovo directed at the checkpoint of the Macedonian security forces near the village of Brnjarci.

 

Centre for Media Activity of the Governmental Coordination Body for Crisis Management reports there has been no consequences from this armed provocation whereat security forces did not fire back.

 

No shootings are heard Saturday morning in Tetovo crisis region, which was not the case during Friday night when shots were heard from many directions, MIA's correspondent reports.

 

Police sources say volley of shots has been registered since last night until this morning from Rasadiste locality near Tetovo - Popova Sapka road, Drenovec, Kupenik, Vonvardarska and Gorna Carsija settlements, the apartment block around the textile high school, the SEE University, "Ohridska" street near the medical centre.

 

Burst of fire has been heard last night around 22:00 hours from the areas of the villages of Neprosteno, Dzepciste, Odri, Palatica, Trebos, Mala Recica and other Tetovo villages.

 

Police sources say shootouts have been directed at unknown targets.

 

Several detonations are heard early Saturday in Tetovo that come from the southern and northwest part of the town, MIA's correspondent reports.

 

The strongest detonation that came from the area of Teke was heard around 04:00 hours.

 

Police sources say detonation was caused by activation of unknown explosive device that was heard on lower slopes of Sar Mountain near the reformatory.

 

Interior Department from Tetovo started the investigation.

 

The situation in Kumanovo - Lipkovo region during Friday night has been calm without any armed incidents. Patrolling of ethnically mixed police patrols continues in Lipkovo villages.

 

On Friday afternoon, at 13.40h, the "Straza" watchtower of the Macedonian Army located at the Kosovo section of the Macedonian-Yugoslav border was again attacked from the side of Kosovo, Spokesman of the Governmental Coordination Body for Crisis Management Zoran Tanevski reported.

 

According to Tanevski, the Macedonian soldiers responded to the attack and no one was injured on the Macedonian side.

 

This watchtower has been attacked previously on two occasions.

 

 

Today, at 10:30 hours, a fire broke out in the NATO Headquarters Skopje, located in the Gazela Shoe Factory. The Skopje fire brigade was called, arrived there a few minutes later and took quick control over the fire. The building was evacuated. Three persons suffered light irritation due to smoke.

 

They immediately received treatment by the NATO Headquarters Skopje medical team and released. The material damage has yet to be assessed and the investigation on the cause of the fire is ongoing.

 

The Chief of Staff NATO Headquarters Skopje expresses his appreciation for the quick and efficient help provided by the Skopje Fire Brigade.

 

ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF MACEDONIAN BAR ASSOCIATION.

 

The annual assembly of the Macedonian Bar Association begun Saturday in the city of Ohrid. More than 120 delegates from the country, also representatives of the bar associations from Slovenia, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, SR Yugoslavia, Romania, France and Austria as well as representatives of International Bar Association and Council of European Bar Association attend the conference.

 

Along with the election of new management bodies of the MBA, another topic of the assembly's discussions will be the future activities of the attorneys in the society.

 

Welcoming the delegates and the present guests, Macedonian Minister of Interior Ljube Boskovski, pointed out that "barristers should regain their respectable position in the society, i.e. they should be given the opportunity to reaffirm their title 'Doctor of Law Decree' that have all barristers around EU and the world."

 

According to Boskovski, "contribution of the attorneys for protection of individual rights is indeed of a great significance and therefore they should be provided the needed space and contact with those arrested, which imposes the necessity of their presence at the site of the incident together with their clients, before and during conducting of the criminal procedure."

 

"This imposed the need for passing of a protocol that will determine all open issues; signing of such document has been already agreed with the representatives of MBA," Minister Boskovski said.

 

Speaking about the dignity that Macedonia has established in the frameworks of European Union, which "slowly, but surely starts to except us in her family of nations,'' Minister Boskovski underlined the fact that "Macedonia reassembles a country that respects the human rights, despite the troubles caused by the military aggression over our native land."

 

"The normative structure and finishing of the establishment of advocacy as a constitutional category is in its final phase, and the document is soon to be adopted by the Macedonian parliament as well," stated Deputy Justice Minister Veljanovski.

 

He further pointed out that "with this new law, the advocacy will become independent public service that will provide its law assistance and perform public authorization determined by the law."

 

According to Veljanovski, "strengthening of the independency of the advocacy is a part of the democratic processes in every country, and the qualitative functioning of the same presents an indicator of the democratic progress in a society.

 

MOC: NO FINAL AGREEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED AT NIS TALKS.

 

The Holy Synod of Macedonian Orthodox Church confirmed Saturday that no final document on establishing unity between MOC and other Orthodox churches has been signed at the discussions led between two committees of Macedonian and Serbian orthodox churches in the city of Nis on May 17.

 

The document that was brought in public, presents a draft - document only, and it is of no permanent character, reeds the announcement from today's urgent session of the Holy Synod of MOC, which is a extension of the urgent session held on May 20, at which special stress has been put on the discussions led between the committees of the two churches in the city of Nis, May 17.

 

The Holy Synod of MOC unanimously stated its opinion that it has never stop fighting for recognition of the name of the Macedonian Ortodox Church - as wel as fighting for recognition of the title of its patriarch - the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia.

 

The Holy Synod, states the announcement, stands on its beliefs that the discussions should continue in order to come out with a solution that would be most acceptable regarding this issue.

 

"We have no other alternative left, but to jointly, in the spirit of brotherhood, put efforts to endure as Macedonian nation, as the church of St. Kliment - Macedonian Ortodox Church," stated the Metropolitan of Polog and Kumanovo, his holiness Kiril, adding that "every withdraw from the holy commitments may bring judgement."

 

He further pointed out that "As a nation we were given the right from our lord to exist as a special nation, as independent church and as a sovereign Macedonian state, and we will, as long as this world exists.

 

 

Antiwar
by Christopher Deliso
May 25, 2002

 

SKOPJE Tensions escalated Wednesday on the lawless Kosovo-Macedonian border, when Kosovar Albanians opened fire on Macedonian Army positions with mortars and automatic weapons. Macedonian Defense Minister Popovski stated to the press that the country will move quickly to "eliminate" any future attacks.

 

The unrest has been going on since February, when Kosovar peasants complained that they were being cut off from their lands by an "unfair" border demarcation. Blockades, street protests and open gunfire have continued since.

 

The skirmishes have long been explained away as sordid (yet politically unmotivated), provocations from Albanian criminals guarding their smuggling routes. Yet recent events in Pristina indicate that the renewed extremism has overt and potentially explosive political dimensions.

 

This weeks decree from the "Kosovo Parliament" that the internationally-respected Yugoslav-Macedonian border was illegal shocked even the provinces Western minders. Only minutes after the vote, UNMIK chief Michael Steiner cast down his veto and thus enraged the Albanians. The US Embassy in Skopje also vetoed what amounted to a declaration of war from the Kosovars.

 

This rejection (for now) of a "Greater Kosovo" puts US and other international peacekeepers directly in the militants targets. One KFOR soldier was killed recently near the border by an Albanian land mine. This week NATO discovered and destroyed several freshly-laid mines in northwestern Macedonia.

 

Macedonia is unhappy with UNMIKs weak efforts to restrain the radicals.

 

Extremist Kosovar leader Bajram Rexhepi first announced that the border agreement was "illegal." Calling Rexhepi and his provisional government an "illegitimate entity," Popovski claimed that "the political leaders of Kosovo are responsible for stimulating the extremism."

 

Now, pressure is growing on the Macedonian parliament to denounce the Kosovars failed resolution. Relations between Macedonia and Kosovo are at their lowest point in months.

 

It is well-known that the Albanian war for "human rights" in Macedonia was orchestrated by the most radical and experienced veterans of the KLA.

 

Weapons and logistical supplies were easily smuggled over the immense mountains dividing Kosovo from Macedonia. In April of this year, the Macedonian Army contended that fresh recruits from Kosovo were being massed for a fresh offensive. At the same time inside sources claim that large amounts of new weapons including first-generation American rifles are also being imported from Kosovo. Surface-to-air rockets vital for attacking helicopters are allegedly also now a part of the Albanian arsenal. These upgrades could change the dynamic of any future conflict.

 

Yet the Macedonian Army has been building up also. When the war began in March 2001, the country had three helicopters and an untested army. Now, Macedonian has around 20 helicopters and several well-trained special forces units. Army installations remain on high alert, and anti-terrorist units are still dealing with unexploded land mines, bomb threats, and occasional shootouts.

 

While peace has returned to Macedonia, it remains a tenuous one.

 

 

Foreign Minister Passy: "Clearing of Bulgaria's Name in Connection with Papal Kill Bid Is This Country's Largest Diplomatic Success since WW II"

 

Sofia, May 25 (BTA) - Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy described Pope John Paul II's statement that he never believed in the so-called "Bulgarian connection" to the 1981 assassination attempt against him as "this country's largest diplomatic success since World War II." The chief Bulgarian diplomat said this on National Television Friday evening, asked to assess the papal visit to Bulgaria and the practical exoneration of this country from the attempt on the Pontiff's life.

 

"Generations of Bulgarians have worked to make this day possible. We have worked hard and, ultimately, we have made it," Passy said. "The purpose of this effort was to eliminate an injustice. But this is how things happen in life, you don't have just to do a good deed but to fight evil, too. I believe that today we won a major battle, we won a great victory against evil," the Bulgarian Foreign Minister said.

 

He noted that he would like to give special credit to "the role of a person who has worked on this matter quietly and noiselessly for 20 years now and who now happens to be Bulgaria's Prime Minister."

 

Passy added that he has been waiting for this since 1994, when he led an Atlantic Club delegation to an audience with the Pope. "Back then I knew that the Pope very much wanted to visit Bulgaria. And he knew that it was precisely the visit to this country that would be the best place and the best time to make this sacral announcement," Passy said.

 

Earlier on Friday, conferring with Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, Pope John Paul II described as an "insinuation" the so-called "Bulgarian connection" to the assassination attempt against him in 1981. "This is an insinuation, a gross injustice to the Bulgarian people," the Holy Father said, quoted by the President to the media.

 

 

 

Public Predominantly Positive in Disposition to Papal Visit, Alpha Research Poll Finds.

 

Sofia, May 25 (BTA) - Positive dispositions to Pope John Paul II's visit to Bulgaria dominate public opinion, the Alpha Research Marketing and Social Research Agency found in a representative national poll conducted in May and summed up on its Website.

 

As many as 42 per cent of Bulgarians approved of the visit, and 25 per cent said they were expecting the event with curiousity; 29 per cent were indifferent, and only 4 per cent were categorically opposed, according to the poll results.

 

The sociologists attribute these positive dispositions largely to the fact that the activity of the Holy Father goes beyond the limits of religion proper. Forty-three per cent of respondents associate the Pope's work with inter-faith conciliation and tolerance. Another 21 per cent associate his activity above all with the initiative to achieve peace in the Middle East. Most of the latter respondents are young people, university graduates, schoolchildren, unmarried, and residents of the large cities.

 

A sizable 28 per cent of those polled admit that they know nothing about the Pope. The pollsters note that those ignorant of the Pope's activities are rather indifferent to his visit, while those informed are curious.

 

The respondents who approve of the visit are mostly aged over 50, women, residents of smaller population centres and pensioners. Those curious to see the Pontiff are predominantly young, schoolchildren, residents of Sofia and unmarried, the poll found.

 

Indifference is typical of members of ethnic groups other than Bulgarian and adherents to religions other than Christianity. One in four of the respondents who identity themselves as Turks and Roma approve of the papal visit to Bulgaria, Alpha Research reports.

 

 

 

On Pilgrimage to Rila Monastery, Pope Venerates Miracle-Working Icon of Virgin, Saint's Relics, Pays Respects to Royal Grave.

 

Rila Monastery, Southwestern Bulgaria, May 25 (BTA) - Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the Rila Monastery (Southwestern Bulgaria) Saturday morning. He flew by helicopter from Sofia to a meadow near the cloister and was driven to the sanctuary by car. Upon arrival at the Monastery, he was welcomed by the Hegumen, Bishop Ioan of Dragovitia, and by Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was here together with his wife, two sons with their wives and children.

 

The arrival of the Pope was announced by ringing of the church bells.

 

At the Monastery Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, the Pope venerated a miracle-working icon of the Virgin, in which particles of the relics of 32 saints are imbedded. The Holy Father lit two candles in front of the icon, as is the Eastern Orthodox ritual practice.

 

"You bring us the blessing of the two first principal apsotles, Peter and Paul, and of the numberless martyrs who laid their life for Christ and for the Holy Gospel," Bishop Ioan said, addressing the guest.

 

He thanked the Holy Father that, during his brief stay in Bulgaria, he vouchsafed to visit the holiest Bulgarian shrine, Rila Monastery, "a little corner in the ancient garden of the Theotokos, who is the patron of this cloister."

 

The Hegumen said that the Rila Monastery was a "granite pillar of the Orthodox faith, piety, culture, education and aspiration to freedom during the stormy history of the Bulgarian people. This is why the paths to this national sanctuary have never been overgrown with weeds."

 

"The walls of division between the two Christian churches do not reach up to the skies. Like any man's work, they are transient. Humans have built them up, and humans will pull them down," Bishop Ioan said.

 

He wished the Holy Father that the power and grace of St John of Rila be with him abundantly and that he guide the flock entrusted to him by Christ for many more years in good health and spiritual strength.

 

The Hegumen presented the Pontiff with a lavishly illustrated book on Rila Monastery.

 

The Head of the Roman Catholic Church was particularly pleased to greet Bishop Ioan, who was sent by the late Patriarch Kiril to attend the sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1963-1965).

 

Speaking in Bulgarian, His Holiness addressed the metropolitans and bishops and the monks and nuns of Bulgarian and of all the Holy Orthodox Churches.

 

He said he "wanted to make this pilgrimage to Rila to venerate the relics of the holy monk John and to express gratitude and affection to all of you. 'We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3). [?] Eastern monasticism, together with that of the West, constitutes a great gift for the whole Church," the Pope said, adding that he was pleased today "to acknowledge the authenticity of the path of sanctification traced out in the writings and lives of so many of your monks, who have offered eloquent examples of radical discipleship of the Lord Jesus Christ."

 

"Many times I have emphasized that precious contribution that you make to the ecclesial community through the example of your lives," the Holy Father recalled. "In my Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen I wrote how I would like to 'look at the vast panorama of Eastern Christianity from a specific vantage point which affords a view of many of its features: monasticism.' I am in fact convinced that the monastic experience constitutes the heart of Christian life, so much so that it can be proposed as a point of reference for all the baptized," the Pope said.

 

"Monastic life, in virtue of the uninterrupted tradition of holiness on which it is based, preserves with love and fidelity certain elements of Christian life that are important also for modern men and women: monks and nuns are the Gospel memory for Christians and the world."

 

The Pope praised the Blessed John of Rila, whom he arranged to have depicted along which other holy men and women of East and West in the mosaic of the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, for leaving "everything for the precious pearl of the Gospel," and for placing himself "under the tutelage of holy ascetics in order to learn the art of spiritual combat."

 

"Through the spiritual combat, Blessed John of Rila also lived his 'submission' in the obedience and mutual service required by life in common. [?] Blessed John experienced, then, the hermit's life in 'compunction' and pennance, but above all in uninterrupted listening to the Word and in unceasing prayer, to the point of becoming - as Saint Nilus says - a 'theologian', that is, a man endowed with wisdom that is not of this world, but comes from the Holy Spirit. John's testmanent, which he wrote out of love for his disciples who wished to have his last words, is an extraordinary teaching on the quest for and experience of God for those desirous of leading and authentic Christian and monastic life."

 

"More than ever in the lives of Christians today, idols are seductive and temptations unrelenting; the art of spiritual combat, the discernment of spirits, the sharing of one's thoughts with one's spiritual director, the invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus and of his mercy must once more become a part of the inner life of the disciple of the Lord. This battle is necessary in order not to be distracted or worried, and to live in constant recollection with the Lord," the Holy Father said.

 

"How many witnesses of the path of holiness have shone brightly in this Monastery of Rila during its many centuries of history, and in so many other Orthodox monasteries! How great is the universal Church's debt of gratitude to all the ascetics who have kept in mind the 'one necessary thing', man's ultimate destiny!" the Pope said.

 

"We gratefully admire the precious tradition that Eastern monks and nuns live faithfully and continue to hand on from generation to generation as an authenic sign of the eschaton, that future to which God continues to call every person through the hidden power of the Spirit. They are a sign, through their adoration of the Most Holy Trinity in the liturgy, through their communion in the agape, through the hope which in their intercession encompasses every person and every creature, to the very threshold of hell."

 

"All the Orthdoox Churches know how much the monasteries are a priceless heritage of their faith and culture. What would Bulgaria be without the Monastery of Rila, which in the darkest periods of your national history kept the flame of faith burning? What would Greece be without the Holy Mountain of Athos? Or Russia without that myriad of dwelling places of the Holy Spirit which enabled it to overcome the inferno of Soviet persecution? And so, the Bishop of Rome is here today to tell you that the Latin Church also and the religious of the West are grateful to you for your life and witness!" the Pontiff said, concluding his address.

 

He blessed the monks and nuns and wished them that God confirm them in their faith and in their vocation, and make them instruments of communion in His holy Church and witnesses of His love in the world.

 

The Pope presented to the Monastery an icone of the Virgin, done in the style of the Catholic tradition at the Vatican mosaics school and depicting the Mother of God flanked by two angels, one holding a cross and the other a lance, which symbolizes the suffering of Christ.

 

The Pontiff venerated the relics of St John of Rila, who was also canonized by the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Clement III (1187-1191). Before leaving the church, the guest and the cardinals said a short prayer over the grave of King Boris III (Prime Minister Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's father), in the company of Bishop Ioan and the Prime Minister.

 

After the official welcoming ceremony, John Paul II proceeded to the Icon Hall for a 15-minute private meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They talked in Italian, according to the Council of Ministers' Information Directorate. The PM told the guest about his father's life and about the history of the Monastery. They were later joined by the members of the PM's family. The Pope gave each of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha's grandchildren a mother-of-pearl rosary.

 

Talking to journalists after the meeting, the Prime Minister described the Pope's statement Friday, in which he exonerated Bulgaria from involvement in the 1981 assassination attempt against him, as "historic and most important for Bulgaria." Saxe-Coburg-Gotha recalled that for 20 years he has been trying to contribute to such categorical declaration of this fact. The PM said he had been "emotionally shattered" by the brief prayer which the Pontiff said at his father's grave in the Monastery Church.

 

The monastery and its surroundings were guarded by some 600 policemen. Several ambulances and fire trucks were also on standby.

 

 

Reuters
By Anna Mudeva

 

RILA MONASTERY, Bulgaria (Reuters) - Pope John Paul Saturday visited a mountain sanctuary that inspired centuries of Bulgarian resistance to Ottoman rule as he struggled on with a trip meant to spread the message of Christian unity.

 

The Pope, frail and short of breath at age 82, flew to the Rila monastery on the third day of his visit to Orthodox Bulgaria to tour frescoed halls and venerated icons symbolizing the blend of eastern and western traditions here.

 

He was greeted within the fortress-like walls by the former king and current Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, who guided him to the grave of his father King Boris III.

 

"The fact that he came to Bulgaria is important, but to see him saying a prayer at my father's grave was more than moving for me," Saxe-Coburg said. "I have no words to describe it."

 

As he has throughout the trip which started in Azerbaijan on Wednesday, the Pope looked frail and moved with great difficulty. His appeals for togetherness and praise for the resistance of clerics to communist-era oppression have been barely audible.

 

"It was obvious that the Pope's mental condition is much better than his physical," said Saxe-Coburg, who spoke Italian to the Pope and cut short their meeting so as not to tire him.

 

"The condition of the Pope is obvious to all," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. "He will continue to travel under these limitations."

 

But a senior Bulgarian Orthodox cleric suggested arduous voyages might soon be beyond the Pontiff.

 

"His mission is his desire but I think the people around him should tell him to stop," Metropolitan Simeon said. "Who among us could do what he is doing? No one but him. He is suffering like Christ."

 

BURDEN OF HOPES.

 

Simeon entered national politics last year, winning an election as the head of a newly founded reform movement after more than 50 years in exile.

 

The papal visit is a coup for his young government, which hopes the trip will bring Bulgaria closer to the West and distract people disgruntled that the post-communist years have yet to bring prosperity.

 

The former king, who came to the throne at age six and fled in 1946 after communists rigged an election abolishing the monarchy, has said he simply wants to serve his people and does not want his crown back.

 

Boris died of a mystery illness in 1943 after a trip to Berlin, with many suspecting the Nazis poisoned him after he refused to send his troops to fight along with German forces.

 

He was buried at Rila, but the communist authorities dug up the body to prevent it becoming a focus of resistance and scattered it in parts. Only the heart was recovered, to be reburied amid great ceremony in 1993.

 

The monastery founded in the 14th century in snow-capped mountains 80 miles southwest of Sofia was a focal point for national pride in the five centuries of repressive Ottoman rule which ended in 1878.

 

The Pope has already boosted Bulgaria's self-esteem by dismissing any suggestion the country's communist-era secret services were linked with Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca's plot to assassinate him in 1981.

 

The 96th official foreign trip of the Polish-born Pope's 23-year pontificate will end Sunday in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city and home to most of its Roman Catholic minority of 80,000 people.

 

 

 

Saturday, 25 May 2002
PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY MONASTERY OF RILA.

 

 

1. Peace be with you! I greet you with affection in the Lord. In particular I greet the Hegumen of this Monastery, Bishop Ioan, who, as an Observer sent by His Holiness Patriarch Cyril, took part with me in the sessions of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

 

In the course of my visit to Bulgaria, I wanted to make this pilgrimage to Rila to venerate the relics of the holy monk John and to express gratitude and affection to all of you: "We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thes 1:2-3).

 

Yes, dear Brothers and Sisters, Eastern monasticism, together with that of the West, constitutes a great gift for the whole Church.

 

2. Many times I have emphasized the precious contribution that you make to the ecclesial community through the example of your lives. In my Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen I wrote how I would like "to look at the vast panorama of Eastern Christianity from a specific vantage point which affords a view of many of its features: monasticism" (No. 9). I am in fact convinced that the monastic experience constitutes the heart of Christian life, so much so that it can it can be proposed as a point of reference for all the baptized.

 

A great Western monk and mystic, William of Saint-Thierry, calls your experience, which nourished and enriched the monastic life of the Catholic West, a "light which comes from the East" (cf. Epistula ad fratres de Monte Dei I, Sources Chrétiennes 223, p. 145). With him, many other spiritual men of the West expressed praise-filled recognition of the richness of Eastern monastic spirituality. I am pleased today to join my voice to this chorus of appreciation, and to acknowledge the authenticity of the path of sanctification traced out in the writings and lives of so many of your monks, who have offered eloquent examples of radical discipleship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

3. Monastic life, in virtue of the uninterrupted tradition of holiness on which it is based, preserves with love and fidelity certain elements of Christian life that are important also for modern men and women: monks and nuns are the Gospel memory for Christians and the world.

 

As Saint Basil the Great teaches (cf. Regulae Fusius Tractatae VIII, PG 31, 933-941), Christian life is above all apotaghé, "renunciation" of sin, of worldliness, of idols, in order to hold fast to the one true God and Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Thes 1:9-10). In monasticism, this renunciation becomes radical: it is the renunciation of home, family, profession (cf. Lk 18:28-29); the renunciation, therefore, of earthly goods in the unending quest for those that are eternal (cf. Col 3:1-2); the renunciation of philautía, as Saint Maximus Confessor calls it (cf. Capita de Charitate II, 8; III, 8; III, 57 and passim, PG 90, 960-1080), that is, selfish love, in order to gain knowledge of the infinite love of God and to become capable of loving the brethren. Monastic mysticism is above all a path of renunciation in order to be able to hold ever faster to the Lord Jesus and to be transfigured by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Blessed John of Rila whom I arranged to have depicted along with other holy men and women of East and West in the mosaic of the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, and to whom this Monastery bears enduring witness when he heard Jesus words calling him to renounce all his possessions and give them to the poor (cf. Mk 10:21), left everything for the precious pearl of the Gospel, and placed himself under the tutelage of holy ascetics in order to learn the art of spiritual combat.

 

4. "Spiritual combat" is another element of monastic life which needs to be taught anew and proposed once more to all Christians today. It is a secret and interior art, an invisible struggle in which monks engage every day against the temptations, the evil suggestions that the demon tries to plant in their hearts; it is a combat that becomes crucifixion in the arena of solitude in the quest for the purity of heart that makes it possible to see God (cf. Mt 5:8) and of the charity that makes it possible to share in the life of God who is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:16).

 

More than ever in the lives of Christians today, idols are seductive and temptations unrelenting: the art of spiritual combat, the discernment of spirits, the sharing of ones thoughts with ones spiritual director, the invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus and of his mercy must once more become a part of the inner life of the disciple of the Lord. This battle is necessary in order not to be distracted (aperíspastoi) or worried (amérimnoi) (cf. 1 Cor 7:32,35), and to live in constant recollection with the Lord (cf. Saint Basil the Great, Regulae Fusius Tractatae VIII, 3; XXXII, 1; XXXVIII).

 

5. Through the spiritual combat, Blessed John of Rila also lived his "submission" in the obedience and mutual service required by life in common. The monastery is the place where the "new commandment" is daily fulfilled, it is the house and school of communion, the place where we become servants of the brethren, just as Jesus chose to be a servant in the midst of his disciples (cf. Lk 22:27). What a powerful Christian witness is given by a monastic community when it lives in authentic charity! Before such witness, non-Christians too are led to recognize that the Lord is ever living and active in his people.

 

Blessed John experienced, then, the hermits life in "compunction" and penance, but above all in uninterrupted listening to the Word and in unceasing prayer, to the point of becoming as Saint Nilus says a "theologian" (cf. De Oratione LX, PG 79, 1180B), that is, a man endowed with wisdom that is not of this world, but which comes from the Holy Spirit. Johns testament, which he wrote out of love for his disciples who wished to have his last words, is an extraordinary teaching on the quest for and experience of God for those desirous of leading an authentic Christian and monastic life.

 

6. Monks and nuns, in obedience to the Lords call, undertake the journey which, starting with self-denial, leads to perfect charity, by virtue of which they experience the very sentiments of Christ (cf. Phil 2:5): they become meek and humble of heart (cf. Mt 11:29), they share in Gods love for all creatures, and they love as Isaac the Syrian says the very enemies of truth (cf. Sermones Ascetici, Collatio Prima, LXXXI).

 

Having been enabled to see the world through Gods eyes, and become ever more configured to Christ, religious men and women move towards the ultimate end for which man was created: divinization, sharing in the life of the Trinity. Grace makes this possible only to those who through prayer, tears of compunction and charity open themselves to the Holy Spirit, as we are reminded by another great monk of these beloved Slav lands, Seraphim of Sarov (cf. Colloquio con Motovilov III, in P. Evdokimov, Serafim di Sarov, Uomo dello Spirito, Bose 1996, pp. 67-81).

 

7. How many witnesses of the path of holiness have shone brightly in this Monastery of Rila during its many centuries of history, and in so many other Orthodox monasteries! How great is the universal Churchs debt of gratitude to all the ascetics who have kept in mind the "one necessary thing" (cf. Lk 10:42), mans ultimate destiny!

 

We gratefully admire the precious tradition that Eastern monks and nuns live faithfully and continue to hand on from generation to generation as an authentic sign of the éschaton, that future to which God continues to call every person through the hidden power of the Spirit. They are a sign, through their adoration of the Most Holy Trinity in the liturgy, through their communion in the agape, through the hope which in their intercession encompasses every person and every creature, to the very threshold of hell, as Saint Silvanus of Athos recalls (cf. Ieromonach Sofronij, Starec Siluan, Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, Tolleshunt Knights by Maldon 1952 [1990], pp. 91-93).

 

8. Dearest Brothers and Sisters, all the Orthodox Churches know how much the monasteries are a priceless heritage of their faith and culture. What would Bulgaria be without the Monastery of Rila, which in the darkest periods of your national history kept the flame of faith burning? What would Greece be without the Holy Mountain of Athos? Or Russia without that myriad of dwelling places of the Holy Spirit which enabled it to overcome the inferno of Soviet persecution? And so, the Bishop of Rome is here today to tell you that the Latin Church also and the religious of the West are grateful to you for your life and witness!

 

Dearly beloved Monks and Nuns, God bless you! May he confirm you in your faith and in your vocation, and may he make you instruments of communion in his holy Church and witnesses of his love in the world.

 

Victoria Seraphimova

 

Highway police is to look for violators, fines amount to 30 levs.

 

From tomorrow on driving with a a cellular phone in one's hands is forbidden. Fines amount to 30 levs under the Traffic Act that was enforced a month earlier. Posses of highway police officers will look for violators. There are 2 million people in Bulgaria who have cellular phones.

 

 

Standartnews
Elitsa Ivanova

The building of the Bulgarian-Macedonian customs house near the railway station of Gjueshevo will be converted into a pub. The deluxe customs house was built in 1999 but has remained locked up because of the delay in the construction of the so-called Corridor 8. Over 600,000 levs have been spent on it. The offices were fully equipped already three years ago, but have remained unused so far.

 

 

Two girls - school-graduates from the Vocational School for Designers in the city of Veliko Tarnovo, and a friend of theirs died in a horrible car accident on May 24. At 4.15 a.m. a brand new BMW crashed head-on at a speed of 200 km/h in the metal rail dividing the road. Driver Iliyan Gyozov and 18-year old Polya Atanassova died on the spot. Her friend, Diana Velichkova, died in hospital.

(PY)

 

United Press International
From the National Desk

 

SAN DIEGO, May 25 (UPI) -- An Internet investment adviser charged with insider trading was being held without bail on a parole violation Saturday after federal prosecutors in San Diego raised questions about a stock-sales order he placed the day before the September terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

 

Amir "Anthony" Elgindy, 34, of Encinitas, faces charges in New York of allegedly taking part in a stock manipulation and extortion scheme with four other people, including two current and former FBI agents. Prosecutors, however, raised questions during a detention hearing Friday about what he might have known about the deadly attacks.

 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Breen argued that Elgindy, a native of Egypt who now lives in a $2.2 million home in an upscale beach community north of San Diego, had ordered the sale of $300,000 worth of stock in his children's trust fund on Sept. 10, and at the same time had told a stockbroker that he was expecting an imminent drop of some 3,000 points on the stock market.

 

"Perhaps Mr. Elgindy had pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks," Breen said.

 

"Instead of trying to report it, he tried to profit from it."

 

Authorities say Elgindy is a short-seller on the market, someone who profits by borrowing stock shares and selling them in anticipation of a price drop in the near future. Once the stock falls below the sale price, the short-sellers buy up shares to pay back the loan, keeping the difference.

 

Elgindy was named in a federal indictment unsealed in Brooklyn May 22 that alleged racketeering, insider trading, market manipulation and extortion. The scheme allegedly involved two New Mexico-based FBI agents who fed Elgindy confidential and potentially damaging FBI information about companies that he and two other traders would in turn use to set up short-selling transactions, or to extort money or stock out of the companies involved in exchange for his not posting the damaging details on his Internet tip services, InsideTruth.com and AnthonyPacific.com.

 

Elgindy has had scrapes with securities regulators in the past. The state of Ohio denied his request for a sales license on 1997 on the grounds he was "not of good business repute."

 

Breen also told the court that there was evidence that Elgindy had recently wired about $700,000 to Lebanon, possibly indicating he was preparing to flee the country.

 

U.S. Magistrate John A. Houston agreed to hold Elgindy pending further proceedings in San Diego June 6, however he said he would disregard the speculation about Elgindy's possible knowledge of the Sept. 11 attack.

 

Houston said he was ordering Elgindy to remain locked up because ammunition found in his home was a violation of his parole on an earlier conviction.

 

Elgindy's lawyer, Jeanne Knight, said the Sept. 10 sell order was placed after the market closed and was routine in nature. She called the prosecution's speculation about Sept. 11 a form of racial profiling aimed at smearing her client.

 

"This is just like the case of Wen Ho Lee, who the government tried to charge with spying just because he was Chinese," she told the Los Angeles Times.

 

"My client was being watched only because he is of Middle-Eastern descent."

 

Elgindy, who has been an active supporter of causes aiding Muslim refugees in Kosovo, apparently attracted the attention of the FBI in the days after Sept. 11 when investigators began combing stock market transactions for signs that the terrorists or their supporters had sold off holdings or made deals such as selling short in order to make a quick profit as the stock market fell.

 

"There is no solid link indicating a connection between Elgindy and Sept. 11," Jan Caldwell, the FBI's spokeswoman in San Diego, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Elgindy's name came up during the terror probe."

 

 

TIMES Online
By Our Foreign Staff

 

A LIMITED nuclear war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir would kill at least three million people, scientists said yesterday.

Millions would die in the immediate blast and fire and from radiation. Others would suffer destroyed homes, lack of water and facilities and disease years later.

 

M. V. Ramana, of Princeton University in New Jersey, told New Scientist magazine: It is imperative that the two countries do not go to war, however limited in scale.

 

Even the most local conflicts have the potential to escalate into a full-scale war, possibly nuclear.

 

Mr Ramana and other nuclear researchers at the US university have estimated that if only a tenth of the nuclear weapons of the two countries were exploded above ten of their largest cities, 2.6 million people would die or be injured in India and 1.8 million in Pakistan.

 

Their calculations are based on what would happen if ten explosions, similar in size to the one over Hiroshima in Japan in 1945, took place over some of Indias and Pakistans most populated cities.

 

The targeted cities used in the scenario are Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Delhi in India, and Faisalabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

 

Casualties on the Indian side would be 1.7 million dead and 900,000 injured, while the toll in Pakistan would be 1.2 million dead and 600,000 injured.

 

These would be, however, only the immediate casualties from blast, fire and radiation. An unknown number of deaths would occur from cancer in future years.

 

Radioactive dust, if the bombs exploded on the ground, would kill people across hundreds of square miles. Because the prevailing winds are from the west, India is a likelier victim of fallout than Pakistan.

 

Estimates of the countries nuclear arsenals are based on their stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium, according to New Scientist.

 

The Institute for Science and International Security in Washington suggests that India has about 65 warheads made from 310 kilograms of plutonium, while Pakistan has about 40 made from 690 kilograms of uranium, it said. But other estimates differ.

 

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, warned India and Pakistan yesterday that war was not an option because of the risk of escalation between the two nuclear armed states.

 

Mr Rumsfeld said that both countries, which have fought three wars and tested nuclear weapons in 1998, were capable of waging nuclear war but he said that the consequences would be devastating.

 

It would be bad, it would not be pretty, it would be not shortlived, he said.

 

Mr Rumsfeld said that message was delivered to India during US-Indian defence talks at the Pentagon on Thursday.

 

We also expressed our countrys very serious concerns about the dangerous situation between India and Pakistan and the need to reduce tensions between the two countries, he said.

 

 

 

BEIJING - China's Foreign Minister has phoned his Indian counterpart to urge India and Pakistan to show the "highest degree of restraint" to cool their worsening military skirmishes, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.

 

China hopes India will "play an even more active role in cooling the tense situation in South Asia," Xinhua quoted Tang Jiaxuan as saying in Friday's call to Jaswant Singh.

 

"China sincerely hopes India and Pakistan can show the highest degree of restraint, speedily resolve the tense situation in South Asia, and resolve their differences through dialogue," Tang was quoted as saying.

 

India and Pakistan have massed about 1 million troops at their frontier.

 

Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors escalated after an attack on an Indian army camp in Indian-controlled Kashmir on May 14 that killed 34 people, mostly soldier's wives and children. India blames Pakistan-based Islamic militants for the attack.

 

Cross-border shelling over the past week has killed dozens in divided Kashmir.

 

China fought a short but bloody border war with India in 1962, but has lately sought to improve ties between the Asian giants. China has also long been one of Pakistan's allies and main provider of weapons and technology.