divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/95085?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Nato+snubs+US+by+resuming+Russia+contactsch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Nato+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CUS+news%2CEuropean+Union+%28News%29%2CGeorgia+%28News%29%2CUkraine+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Middle+East+Travel%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+Traynorc7=2008_12_03c8=1127771c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Natoc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FNato" width="1" height="1" //divpThe US suffered a setback yesterday when their west European Nato allies forced a resumption of contacts between the alliance and Russia and stalled Nato-membership bids from Georgia and Ukraine. /ppA meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels agreed to reopen contacts with Moscow, frozen in protest at Russia's invasion and partition of Georgia last August. Despite US pressure, the meeting also declined to hasten Nato applications from Georgia and Ukraine. /ppThe meeting agreed on a "conditional and graduated re-engagement with Russia", said the Nato secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, adding that the liaison body known as the Nato-Russia Council would also resume sessions. /ppHe stressed this was not "business as usual" with Moscow, but the decision to restore contacts coincided with the EU resuming negotiations with Russia on a new strategic pact which were called off because of the Georgia conflict. /pp"The moment has arrived to renew negotiations with Russia," said Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister. /ppCondoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, cautioned against restoring links, but appeared to have lost the argument. /ppA Nato summit last April split over Georgia's and Ukraine's membership bids, with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, prevailing over George Bush when the alliance refused to award the two post-Soviet countries the membership action plans that are the roadmaps to joining. /ppThe Bucharest summit sent mixed signals and arguably helped to spark the August conflict. Yesterday's meeting indicated that the transatlantic rift has widened because of that conflict, with both sides to the dispute feeling vindicated./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nato"Nato/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia"Russia/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eu"European Union/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/georgia"Georgia/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ukraine"Ukraine/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/7oN8Gxwktw9q-WmchMiUEM58mBY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/7oN8Gxwktw9q-WmchMiUEM58mBY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Die NATO will die Beziehungen zu Russland wieder aufnehmen. Sie lagen seit dem Georgien-Krieg im August auf Eis. Georgien und die Ukraine haben keinerlei Aussicht, über eine Abkürzung in die NATO zu kommen.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO agreed Tuesday to gradually resume contacts with Russia suspended after Moscow's intervention in Georgia, and put off a decision on putting Ukraine and Georgia on formal membership tracks.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=VKkLtR2Z"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=UcijAWsN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=UcijAWsN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=gdEO0Fiw"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=gdEO0Fiw" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/hdm52rMB8lM" height="1" width="1"/

Fribourg Olympic a subi mardi en Ukraine sa deuxième défaite en deux matches d'EuroChallenge. Pour lire cette news dans son intégralité, a ...

div style='clear:left;'img style="float:left;padding-right:5px;" src="http://www.faz.net/m/{6119103A-0D53-4231-84D2-E04C23C9C896}File2.jpg" width=111 height=155 border=0 /Rund vier Monate nach dem Kaukasus-Konflikt nimmt die Nato den Dialog mit Russland wieder auf. Dies solle schrittweise erfolgen, kündigte Generalsekretär de Hoop Scheffer an. Ein Schnellverfahren für den Beitritt der Ukraine und Georgiens wurde unterdessen abgelehnt.div style="margin: 5px 0 5px 0; border-top:1px solid #7A89CC; font: 10px arial; color: #7A89CC; clear: both;" a href="http://www.faz.net/s/homepage.html" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"FAZ.NET - Homepage/a a href="http://www.faz.net/politik" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Politik/a a href="http://www.faz.net/gesellschaft" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Gesellschaft/a a href="http://www.faz.net/wirtschaft" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Wirtschaft/a a href="http://www.faz.net/finanzmarkt" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Finanzmarkt/a a href="http://www.faz.net/sport" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Sport/a a href="http://www.faz.net/feuilleton" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Feuilleton/a a href="http://www.faz.net/reise" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Reise/a a href="http://www.faz.net/wissen" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Wissen/a a href="http://www.faz.net/auto" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Auto/a a href="http://www.faz.net/computer" style="font-size: 10px; color: #7A89CC; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" | Computer/a /div /div

Nach dem Georgien-Krieg will die NATO die Beziehungen zu Russland wieder aufnehmen. Einen Beitritt Georgiens und der Ukraine im Schnellverfahren lehnten die NATO-Außenminister bei einem Treffen ab.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/34048?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Rice+warns+Nato+against+closer+ties+with+Moscow+%E2%80%93+for+nowch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Nato+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CGeorgia+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CUS+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Owen+Bowcottc7=2008_12_02c8=1127411c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Natoc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FNato" width="1" height="1" //divpNato should beware of cooperating too closely with Russia after the invasion of Georgia last summer, the outgoing US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, warned today./ppSpeaking in London before attending a meeting of the military alliance in Brussels, she signalled that the US was willing to improve strained diplomatic relations with Moscow. "In principle, we don't have any problem [with closer ties]," Rice said. /ppHowever, the timing of renewed cooperation should be subject to tests, such as whether Russia was meeting its ceasefire commitments or "acting on its quite ill-tempered decision" to recognise two breakaway Georgian provinces as independent. "Those are ... the touchstones of when it makes sense," Rice said./ppTwo days of talks at Nato are expected to focus on Georgia's and Ukraine's hopes of joining the alliance. France and Germany fear that opening pre-membership negotiations with the two states would antagonise Russia. /ppThe US government recently backed away from its call for Ukraine and Georgia to be prepared for Nato membership. It has called, however, for such "post-Soviet" nations' to modernise their armed forces and develop stronger democratic institutions. /ppRice hinted that the US was considering seeking to improve relations with Moscow. "I think you would want to be very careful, for instance, about doing things that look military-to-military, because the Russian military is still sitting in the states," she said, referring to the standoff in the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The US-backed government in Georgia claims the territories as integral parts of the nation. /pp"This [war] turned out badly for Russia, very badly," Rice said. Moscow had failed to bring down the Georgian government, its economy or international support for it, Rice said. "If they did anything, they managed to increase international support for Georgia, not decrease it."/ppRice is cutting short her attendance at the Nato session to travel to India, where she will hold talks about the Mumbai atrocities. /ppSome Nato states have opposed allowing Georgia and Ukraine to join the organisation's Membership Action Plan (MAP). Despite internal divisions, the US is still hoping to find a new way for Georgia and the Ukraine to join the alliance./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nato"Nato/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia"Russia/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/georgia"Georgia/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9PHK1yNXSzW6D29osUcfZEV8FA4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9PHK1yNXSzW6D29osUcfZEV8FA4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

KIEV - Une délégation de la société ukrainienne Naftogaz doit discuter mardi et mercredi à Moscou avec le géant russe ...

Die NATO diskutiert wieder, wann Georgien und die Ukraine Mitglieder werden können. Georgien sei nicht reif, sagt nun auch US-Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice vor der Tagung der NATO-Außenminister. Aber was heißt das?

(Russie) Le président ukrainien Viktor Iouchtchenko est convaincu que l'amitié vaincra au sein des relations entre l'Ukraine et la Russie au cours des prochaines années, même si elles traversent actuellement une phase difficile.

Yesterday marked the 20th World AIDS Day, and although the event was marked on a small scale in the Armenian capital, it was nevertheless observed in a country where such subjects as sexual health and alternative sub-cultures are usually considered somewhat taboo. Pink Armenia posted the schedule for the day which also included a concert by three local underground punk bands.

December 1st, at 4pm we will gather near the Vardan Mamikonyan statue and start our march till Republic Square, and after all will go to Pushkin street, Avangard folk-club (Pushkin 3a) to start the main event at 5pm, which includes punk underground rock concert, presentations, films and live shows. During the event we'll distribute different information materials on HIV issues and condoms.

Perhaps the most popular ground-breaking Armenian LGBT blog, Unzipped: Gay Armenia summed up the day as well as posting a retrospective on the year since the last World AIDS Day as it pertained to HIV/AIDS in Armenia.

Meanwhile, Armenia: Higher Education & Sciences provides a background to the extent of known HIV infection in the country and comments on a media report casting doubts over a drug developed locally to combat the symptoms of the disease.

The first HIV infection in Armenia was reported in 1988. Since then 150 people have perished according to Armenia’s AIDS Prevention Centre; 128 of them were men and 22 were women. According to the same report, 649 people are currently HIV+. UNAIDS, however, puts the total number at 2,400, of which 610 are women. There are no estimates of the number of Armenian AIDS/HIV+s who have left the country in search of easier, cheaper and more confidential access to treatment.

[…]

The two most common transmission causes are unprotected/high risk heterosexual intercourse (49 percent) and sharing infected needles by intravenous drug users (44 percent). Other causes such as unsafe homosexual intercourse and mother-to-child (perinatal) transmission constitute the remaining 7 percent.

According to the data, almost all infected intravenous drug users are men including a good number of migrant workers who might have been infected in Russia or in Ukraine. All Female HIV+s (98.7 percent) have been infected through unprotected sexual contact.

[…]

2008 is also the 10th anniversary of Armenicum, the so-called wonder drug. For years people have been told about the wonders of this Armenian formula with curative powers over the HIV virus.

[…]

The article says that what most Armenians probably do not know is that their tax money is paying for Armenicum, which is more than triple the cost of the world’s only proven treatment for HIV, antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. They probably also are not aware that in a few months Armenicum may be the only choice available in Armenia for future HIV-infected patients. ... instead of paying for all accepted treatments for HIV patients, the government is ... requiring that AIDS Center doctors offer the drug, while unproven, as a choice.

Photos: © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008, licensed under Creative Commons

Nato is not ready to take in Ukraine and post-war Georgia

Nato is not ready to take in Ukraine and post-war Georgia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States will urge NATO on Tuesday to encourage Georgia and Ukraine to join the military alliance after European nations derailed President George W. Bush's bid to put them on the track to membership.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=tdxiQ0vq"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=5hfKskOs"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=5hfKskOs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=OYkW30Ol"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=OYkW30Ol" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/wjEryD1wBxc" height="1" width="1"/

(Russie) L'Alliance de l'Atlantique Nord "n'arrondira pas les angles" pour accélérer l'adhésion de la Géorgie et de l'Ukraine, a déclaré lundi la secrétaire d'Etat américaine Condoleezza Rice

While Ukraine is taking a principle stand towards its history and calling Holodomor (famine of the 1930s) genocide of the nation, undertaken by the communist regime, Kazakhstani authorities are very quiet on the comparable disaster of the Stalin era, when more than 30 percent of the Kazakhs died. Schriftsteller says [ru]:

Famine in Kazakhstan was not simply genocide, but also ethnocide, because it left significant changes in the Kazakh culture: the type of economy, settling , habitation and clothing changed dramatically. The previous complex of Kazakh nomadic culture, which was present in 1920s was eliminated during the years of famine.

Alim-atenbek looks at the development of Kazakhstani cinematography. One of the recent Kazakh film, “The Gift to Stalin” opened the South Korean film festival, while another movie, “The Tulip”, has taken the CNN APSA Viewers Choice Award [ru]:

3 movies that I saw recently in the cinema were Kazakh ones... Next year, KazakhFilm studio plans to make 15 movies, and if half of them would be of comparable quality, it would be possible to speak about resurrection of the domestic cinematograph.

While Russian blogosphere discusses theft of money at creation of secondary schools’ websites, Megakhuimyak suggests taking a glance at how state funds are spent in the sphere of e-government [ru]:

51 billion tenge, which makes up 425 million dollars were spent for this e-government portal (http://www.e.gov.kz/wps/portal)

Cheerful-husky continues the Internet-related debate and finds out that most of the Kazakhstn-related Google ads lead to the religious websites [ru]:

Link “I hate my life” always grabs your attention. Apparently, it brings you to some Studentstan website, which appears to be a Christian organization. Love.kz has nothing to do with dating – it’s also a mission and love they speak about is the God’s one.

Also posted on neweurasia