Balkans

Two Votes in one Day Idea Denied by Parliament

The Bulgarian Parliament voted Thursday against the proposal to make a change in the Constitution that would allow both the elections for the European Parliament and the national one to be held on the same day. The proposal was made by NDSV, a member of the ruling three way coalition, …

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Albania Minister Sacked Over Sex Scandal

Albania’s Minister of Culture Ylli Pango was fired on Wednesday, after a video showing him allegedly asking sexual favours from young women applying for a job in his ministry was broadcast on TV. The video and audio broadcast on the investigative program Fisk Fare on Top Channel TV shows Pango …

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Stanisic Made His Own News: Serbian Pres

Jovica Stanisic, the former chief of Serbia’s State Security, secured the CIA’s support in his bid to clear his name at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia with the help of Russia’s former prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov, according to Belgrade daily Blic. The same newspaper also claims that Stanisic …

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Postponed Kosovo Trial Begins

The first trial to be held in Kosovo’s northern town of Mitrovica after the courts in the town shut down in February 2008, has begun. The EU’s Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, opened the trial against two Kosovo Serbs charged with breaking into the home of an elderly …

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Tadic: No Quick Fix for Serbian Economy

On the second day of Serbia’s Economic Forum held in the Kopaonik ski resort, the country’s President and government ministers gave some impressive speeches but failed to shed any new light on government policy. Tadic told the gathering that that he expects his government to reach an agreement with the …

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Bulgaria Prepares for New Gas Crisis

Bulgaria is preparing contingency plans to ration gas to industrial consumers in case the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia once again blocks supplies to the country, the economy minister Petar Dimitrov said on March 04. Since Bulgaria relies entirely on Russian gas transited through Ukraine, Bulgaria was one of …

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Serbia: Tadic Gives Stark Economic Warning

In a keynote speech delivered at an annual forum of Serbian economists the country’s president Boris Tadic delivered an impassioned call for an end to links between business, the state and crime. Addressing what some sections of the media have dubbed “Serbia’s Davos”, Tadic told delegates that without greater development …

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Greece Attack – Attackers Throw Firebombs At Bank In Athens

The devices exploded, causing a fire, which seriously damaged the Piraeus Bank branch in the northern Athens suburb of New Psychico. Arsonists threw gas canisters and firebombs at a bank branch office in Athens on Wednesday, causing serious damage to the building but no injuries, Greek police said. There has …

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Bosnian Serb Softens Breakaway Talk

Milorad Dodik, the Prime Minister of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, has seemingly softened his radical rhetoric and temporarily abandoned plans for his entity’s independence, local media reported on Wednesday. The apparent shift in Dodik’s attitude came after his meeting on Tuesday with Stuart Jones, the deputy US …

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EULEX Sentences Albanian for Murder

In the first war crimes trial to be held under the auspices of the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, judges found a Kosovo Albanian guilty of murder, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, sentencing him to17 years in jail. Gani Gashi, 59, from Komoran in central Kosovo …

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