President of Azerbaijan receives Secretary General of Turkish Presidential Administration

Baku – APA. On March 19, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received the Secretary General of the Turkish Presidential Administration Mustafa Isen, APA reports quoting AzerTAc news agency. Isen delivered greetings and Novruz congratulations of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to the Azerbaijani leader. He said he has visited Azerbaijan for the fourth time since 1994 and has been very pleased to see the great development Azerbaijan achieved under the leadership of Heydar Aliyev and Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude for Abdullah Gul’s greetings and Novruz congratulations and asked to deliver his greetings and holiday congratulations to the Turkish president.

A confidence in further development of Azerbaijan-Turkey relations was expressed at the meeting.

Source: APA.
Link: http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=118350.

Turkish president wins international relations prize

Prestigious Chatham House recognizes role of Gul in 'many of the positive steps' of Turkey.

LONDON - Turkish President Abdullah Gul has won this year's prestigious Chatham House prize for improving international relations, the British foreign policy think-tank announced Friday.

Gul was named for his work in deepening Turkey's traditional ties with the Middle East, his efforts to mediate between fractious groups in Iraq and for bringing together the Afghan and Pakistan leaderships during 2009.

The think-tank also praised his efforts to reunify the divided island of Cyprus, his role in beginning the process of reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and his work in bringing Turkey closer to the European Union.

"President Gul is recognized for being a significant figure for reconciliation and moderation within Turkey and internationally, and a driving force behind many of the positive steps that Turkey has taken in recent years," it said.

Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, awards the annual prize to the statesperson considered to have made the most significant contribution to improving international relations that year.

Previous recipients are Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won it last year, and John Kufuor, then president of Ghana, who won in 2008.

Gul will be invited to London later this year to collect the award.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37930.

Spanish climber killed by Pyrenees avalanche

Madrid - One mountain climber was killed and two others injured Friday in an avalanche in the Pyrenees mountains, Spanish officials reported.

The accident occurred near the winter sports center of Candanchu in Huesca province.

The avalanche struck altogether seven persons, including the three mountain climbers and four cross country skiers. The latter four were able to free themselves from the mass of snow.

Friday's death brought to seven the total of people killed in avalanches in the Pyrenees so far this year, an unusually high number which officials attributed to this winter's heavy snowfalls.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314912,spanish-climber-killed-by-pyrenees-avalanche.html.

Sweden to allocate 8.5 million euros per year to Turkey to conduct reforms

The Swedish Government has stated that it will provide not only political, but also financial support to the implementation of reforms in Turkey on joining EU, TRT Russian reported.

The website of the Swedish Government issued a statement on intentions to develop strategic cooperation with Turkey. The statement stressed that Turkey's joining the EU will be encouraged and supported by Sweden.

The statement also emphasized that Turkey will be supported in issues of democracy, equality and human rights. According to the statement, Turkey is one of the most important partners of Sweden, and reforms implemented in this country are of great importance.

The statement stresses that Sweden is ready to assist in the implementation in Turkey not only legal reforms, but reforms to attract women to the democratization process and projects related to minority rights. Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Center for Turkish-Swedish friendship under the Swedish Embassy in Istanbul will deal with coordinating the activity on development of cooperation between Turkey and Sweden.

SIDA, in particular, will provide the opportunity to Turkish students to take part in projects dedicated to human rights and democracy. Similar projects will be implemented in Turkey with Swedish students' participation.

According to the support program of the Swedish Government for 2010-2013, 87 million Swedish krona (about 8.5 million euros) will be allocated to Turkey each year, CNN Turk reported.

Source: Trend.
Link: http://en.trend.az/regions/met/turkey/1657367.html.

Hungarian minister demands action after Israeli aircraft sighting

Budapest - Defense Minister Imre Szekeres intends to ask the Hungarian government to re-establish a Military Aviation Authority in the wake of confusion following reports of two Israeli Air Force planes flying low over Budapest's international airport, the state news agency MTI reported on Friday.

Although it transpired that the flights had been authorized by Hungary's National Transport Authority, neither the ministry, nor the civilian or military secret services, had been informed of the fact, Szekeres said.

The defense minister noted that existing regulations stipulate that the ministry must be informed of such exercises in advance.

Szekeres's announcement came a day after the right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet reported that Israeli military aircraft had been sighted flying low over Budapest Ferihegy Airport on Wednesday.

The report prompted Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai to demand an immediate investigation. Szekeres said he expects the results of the government investigation to be available next week.

In the wake of Thursday's media reports, Israel's ambassador to Hungary Aliza Bin-Noun denied that the aircraft had been spy planes, and said the flight had been "routine" and the relevant authorization had been obtained from the National Transport Authority.

Bin-Noun said in response to a question from the Hungarian state news agency MTI that the embassy was not privy to details of the nature of the "routine" flights, saying the embassy's only responsibility was to put in the request for authorization.

Szekeres noted that around 500 authorizations for state-military type flights are issued in Hungary every year.

The Israeli ambassador suggested that "anti-Israeli sentiment" could lie behind the initial newspaper report of the incident.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/314903,hungarian-minister-demands-action-after-israeli-aircraft-sighting.html.

Egypt's Mubarak names replacement for top Muslim cleric

Berlin/Cairo (Earth Times) - Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak has appointed a new head of al-Azhar University, one of the world's most respected institutions of Muslim learning, the government announced Friday.

Mubarak issued a presidential decree appointing Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayib as the sheikh of al-Azhar, Egypt's Ministry of Information said in a statement.

Al-Tayib's predecessor, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed al-Tantawi, died of a heart attack in Saudi Arabia at the age of 81 over a week ago.

Cairo's 1,000-year-old al-Azhar University is a widely respected educational institution in Egypt and around the Sunni Muslim world. The sheikh, or religious leader, of the institution, has been appointed by the Egyptian president since 1961.

Al-Tayib had served as the president of the university since 2003, and had previously served as Egypt's mufti, the government's top religious authority.

Mubarak, 81, is recovering from surgery in hospital in Heidelberg, Germany.

He had temporarily assigned his duties to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, but the Egyptian government on Friday said Mubarak had begun to assume some of his responsibilities again.

He had also phoned Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi to thank them for their earlier inquiries as to his health.

Friday's announcement follows state television's broadcast, on Tuesday, of the first footage of the president since his operation.

The pictures were released after the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange posted sharp losses, reportedly caused by concern over the president's health. The market quickly recovered lost ground after the footage was broadcast.

Ahmadinejad wants referendum on economic reform bill

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says holding a referendum is the best way to decide on a government bill that aims to regulate subsidies.

Speaking in a televised interview on Friday, the Iranian president proposed holding a referendum to resolve a dispute over a major economic reform plan which will scrap costly subsidies on energy and goods, seeking to reduce government expenditure.

"The best way to decide on the budget bill is to hold a referendum," President Ahmadinejad was quoted by IRNA as saying.

The Iranian president had proposed saving $40 billion by eliminating subsidies but the country's Parliament approved only half of that amount.

President Ahmadinejad said he believed the bill should be passed unchanged, considering high energy consumption and unequal distribution of wealth in the country.

While critics of the plan maintain that the bill will negatively impact the country's inflation rates, President Ahmadinejad dismissed the possibility of catastrophic consequences, arguing that the idea behind the plan is supported by economists and will benefit all people.

The Iranian president added that the faster the economic reform plan is implemented, the fewer will be the aftershocks that the nation suffers.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121241§ionid=351020102.