Balkans

Germany’s mobile operator T-Mobile and its landline operator T-Home planned on Thursday to invest 180million euros (about 231 million U.S. dollars) in Macedonia in the next three years. Macedonia Telecom’s CEO Nikolai Beckers said T-Home’s investment plan has already been drawn up, while T-Mobile’s plan has entered the final stage …

WASHINGTON -The Balkans pose the greatest threat of instability in Europe in 2009, according to an annual threat assessment presented Thursday by U.S. intelligence director Dennis Blair. The report said the principal challenge will come from the unresolved political status of the Serb minority in Kosovo, and the uneasy interethnic …

BELGRADE  – When Nina Ivancev, 38, left Serbia for Australia in 1993, she was convinced she would never return to what was then a pariah state embroiled in Balkan wars. Now she is back, and finds it more stable than richer places. Ivancev was one of millions who left Yugoslavia …

Matthew Nimetz, the United Nations mediator in the Athens- Skopje “name” talks, did not table a new proposal at a Wednesday meeting with negotiators from the two countries, but asked both sides to strive for a positive atmosphere. Nimetz agreed with Macedonian and Greek representatives, Zoran Jolevski and Ademantios Vassilakis, …

Peter Feith, the head of the International Civilian Office in Kosovo and European Union Special Representative, criticized Kosovo’s institutions for lagging behind in key reforms needed to guarantee progress in the new country. Feith spoke during a debate in the European Parliaments’ foreign affairs committee on the occasion of the …

The World Bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, has ordered a new investigation to find out who was responsible for attempts at a cover-up of a Bank misstep in 2006-07 that led to the demolition of a village in southern Albania. An internal inspection panel report of the International Development Association, IDA, …

Ex-Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu and several former high officials of Albania’s Ministry of Defense were charged on Wednesday with abuse of power over the deadly blast at army depot outside Tirana last March. Apart from Mediu, the indicted included the former Chief-Staff of the Let. Gen. Luan Hoxha, Gen Shpetim …

Aside from its IMF stand-by loan, Serbia is trying to secure more funds from international institutions such as the World Bank and European Commission to help it cope with the global financial crisis and ensure economic stability, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said on Wednesday. “Serbia currently has an aid …

Albanian’s former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu and several former high officials of the Ministry of Defense are expected to be charged on Wednesday with abuse of power over the deadly blast at army depot outside Tirana last March, sources inside the prosecution told Balkan Insight. The blast at an army …

Czech CEZ Group is interested in investing in three key energy sectors in Kosovo, and could even buy the troubled KEK distribution company, a senior company official said. CEZ could dominate the energy sector, starting with the buying of power plant “New Kosova”, the buying of KEK distribution, and investment …