Metropolitan Kirill of Varna Died in Mysterious Circumstances in Bulgaria

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Metropolitan Kirill Kovachev of Varna and Velikopreslavsky (Bulgarian Orthodox Church) died. On Tuesday, his body was found on a beach near the city of Varna. According to local media, the police are investigating the death. Metropolitan Kirill stood in for Patriarch Maksim Minkov of Sofia and all Bulgaria during the Patriarch’s final illness, and he was patriarchal locum tenens after the death of Patriarch Maksim.

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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias expressed his condolences Patriarch Neofit Dimitrov of Sofia and all Bulgaria and to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in connection with the death of Metropolitan Kirill Kovachev of Varna and Velikopreslavsky. On Wednesday, the Patriarchal Press Service quoted Patriarch Kirill as saying in a telegram, “The newly-departed Bulgarian archpastor [Kirill] was a great friend of our Church. We knew and loved him in Russia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the other countries that make up the MP’s canonical territory, which he often visited as a dear and welcome guest”. His Holiness noted that he knew Metropolitan Kirill for many years.

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The Chancellery of the Holy Synod wishes to inform you that, today, 9 July 2013, His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill Kovachev of Varna and Velikopreslavsky reposed in the Lord. According to information from the Diocese of Varna and Velikopreslavsky, the body of a Metropolitan Kirill was found on a beach in near the metropolitan residence located in Trakata district. Currently, the body is in the Varna Institute of Forensic Medicine. At this stage, the requisite authorities haven’t confirmed the media reports that his death was due to violent causes. Church authorities in Varna and at the Synod urge all Orthodox Christians and patriotic people to direct their gaze in earnest prayer to God, to ask that he accommodate the soul that left us in Varna in the realm of the righteous.

Pursuant to Article 84 Paragraph 1 of the Statute of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, all members of the Holy Synod will gather tomorrow, 10 July, at 10.00, to meet to set a date for the funeral and burial service; after reading a report message from the Varna Diocesan Council, they’ll appoint a locum tenens for the Diocese of Varna and Velikopreslavsky, to canonically manage the affairs of the diocese until the Synod chooses a successor to the late Metropolitan Kirill. Again, we turn with sincere feelings of condolences in our heart to the bereaved clergy and believers of Diocese of Varna and Velikopreslavsky and renew our call for respectful and sincere prayer for our dearly lamented worthy hierarch, who was a member of the Holy Synod.

Eternal, blessed, and bright memory to the departed Metropolitan Kirill of Varna and Velikopreslavsky!

God rest his soul!

9/10 July 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=51896

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=51908

http://www.bg-patriarshia.bg/news.php?id=114784

Editor’s Note:

I’ve checked some other sources… they say basically the same thing… there’s NO confirmation that the death was due to violence. However, the body was found in an upscale nouveau riche area, so, the chances that the bishop WAS killed by nogoodniks, whether accidentally or on purpose, can’t be ruled out.

BMD

Utøya Survivors to Sit In Norwegian Parliament

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Young candidates from the Labour Party will take part in the first parliamentary election since Breivik’s Massacre in Norway. The 27 survivors chosen from the Worker’s Youth League (AUF) of the Labour Party are expected to be slightly different from previous generations and raise tough questions. Usually, once left-wing young Labour MPs sit in the parliament (Stortinget), they’re likely to share more mainstream views with the rest of the party. However, this generation is believed to confirm confidence in staying true to their beliefs.

Gunn Karin Gjul, a Labour MP, in speaking about the terrorist attack in 2011, when 77 people were killed at the summer camp on Utøya island, noted, “The 22 July generation is a very unique generation within the Labour Party; their ideas were tested in a way that no generation since World War II in Norway has been”. The main question in the AUF candidates’ agenda is oil production. The youth wing would like some parts of the Norwegian continental shelf environmentally protected, the other branches of the party don’t believe this necessary. Another point is the immigration problem, as the AUF wants the government to be more tolerant in this respect. The liberal views of AUF members were one reason for Breivik’s attack… he wanted to stop immigration from Muslim countries to Norway and the AUF seemed to him an obstacle on the way to this. Gjul added that, as massacre survivors, they might question why Norway lacks the death penalty, why Breivik wasn’t given tougher prison conditions, or why he grew bitter and aggressive.

The crucial point in gaining a seat in the Stortinget is a candidate’s ranking on a party list. Many of the Utøya survivors running for parliament lost primary battles for safe positions higher up, so, now, they’re quite low on the list. Only 3 of the 27 survivors have high enough rankings to get elected for sure. According to Norwegian tradition, young people get involved early in politics. The current Prime Minister, Labour’s Jens Stoltenberg, became an MP at age 32, whilst one of his opponents, Conservative Erna Solberg, won election at age 28.

10 July 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_10/Ut-ya-survivors-to-be-elected-in-Norwegian-parliament-9633/

 

Snowden Denies Spilling the Beans to Russia or China

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According to a report in the Guardian, former CIA employee Edward Snowden, wanted by the USA for leaking details of secret state surveillance programmes, denied supplying information to the Russian or Chinese governments. Snowden said as part of interviews conducted Tuesday and Saturday, “I never gave any information to either government, and they never took anything from my laptops”. The comments from Snowden are the first time the fugitive intelligence contractor spoke publicly since he arrived in Moscow on a 30 June flight from Hong Kong.

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who spoke with him, told RIA-Novosti that he conducted the interviews with Snowden online via a “secured chat channel”. Greenwald has close links with Snowden, and he was one of the original journalists to whom Snowden leaked information. The presence of Snowden in both Hong Kong, a part of China, and Russia prompted much speculation that he might cooperate with the security services of the two countries. President Putin said that Russian intelligence agencies never worked with Snowden and weren’t working with him during his stay at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. WikiLeaks, whose representative Sarah Harrison reportedly accompanied Snowden, also denied that Snowden gave information to Russian officials.

Washington wants Snowden on charges of espionage and property theft; it’s revoked his passport. Despite the efforts of dozens of reporters who’ve scoured Sheremetyevo, Snowden hasn’t appeared in public, or spoken to journalists, since his arrival in Moscow. However, Russian officials repeatedly said that Snowden, who reportedly doesn’t have a Russian visa, remains in the Moscow airport. On Wednesday, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told journalists, “Mr Snowden is in the transit zone on the basis of international law”.

10 July 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130710/182166353/Snowden-Denies-Cooperation-With-Russia-or-China–Report.html

Russian Military Unit to Combat “Revisionist History”

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On Wednesday, Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov told reporters that Minoborony plans to create a special military unit to work with archives and monitor “revisionist history”.  In addition to a pilot project to draft research units of science students, the ministry plans to create other units to work in fields such as “sociology, psychology, and history”. Pankov said that one of the units would be at the Minoborony Central Archive, studying “aspects of the falsification of history that’s more widespread in Russia and abroad”. He added that the unit’s research would focus on World War II, and that the soldiers would have access to classified data needed for their projects.

Back in 2009, the Kremlin created a commission against “revisionist history”, which broke up last year with no visible results. Recently, the authorities renewed their enthusiasm for history by ordering the creation of a unified series of school history textbooks that some experts fear that the state might use to promote patriotic sentiment. Last month, a Russian lawmaker submitted a bill to the RF Gosduma that’d outlaw criticism of the Red Army’s actions during World War II. Pankov said that Minoborony plans at least four military research units of draft-age students by the year-end, two of which, made up of science students, took up their posts this week. Earlier, officials said that the time spent by students on the military research projects would count toward their mandatory one-year military service.

10 July 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130710/182161889/Russian-Military-Unit-to-Combat-History-Falsification.html