Eurasia

The cause of the fault has yet to be established, `but the doors of the launch service tower did not open,` said Franco Bonacina of the ESA. The European Space Agency (ESA) on Monday postponed the launch of its most sophisticated Earth observation satellites to date because of a technical …

A separatist official said the economic slump was slowing the reconstruction effort. South Ossetia’s separatist administration said on Monday Russia was failing to honour a pledge to spend millions of dollars repairing the devastation from last year’s war in the breakaway Georgian region. A separatist official said the economic slump …

Ahmed Bashev, mayor of the town of Garmen, and Murat Boshnak, a teacher were questioned for formenting racial and religious hatred. Bulgaria’s national security agency on Monday launched an investigation into a local mayor and an Islamic studies teacher, on suspicion of spreading of radical Islam and fomenting religious hatred. …

Washington – NATO currently has more important priorities than the Balkan enlargement, said Monday Anthony Cordesman, leading military analyst from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked about the NATO membership perspectives of Macedonia, Serbia, B&H and Montenegro, Cordesman said the Alliance is dealing with new candidates at …

Podgorica, Montenegro – Montenegro’s political opposition on Monday accused Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of “meddling” in the Balkan country’s current election campaign. Nebojsa Medojevic, head of the Movement for Change, made the statement in reaction to Berlusconi’s one-day visit with Montenegran Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in Podgorica. 

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev last night ordered a large-scale Russian rearmament – including its nuclear arsenal – from 2011. Mr Medvedev said Russia’s forces needed to be modernised to respond to international terrorism and NATO expansion. Speaking before a meeting with defence chiefs, Mr Medvedev said a modern military “is …

MOSCOW – RUSSIA on Tuesday agreed to give $226 million dollars (114 million euros) of aid to two rebel regions of Georgia. Moscow will give 2.36 billion rubles (52 million euros) to Abkhazia and 2.8 billion rubles to South Ossetia. 

TBILISI, March 17 –Georgian authorities express protest against military exercises, underway in Abkhazia on March 17-18, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temuri Yakobashvili told reporters on Tuesday. “The presence of Abkhazian armed forces of such a high numerical strength in the administrative border area is alarming,” he said. 

According to Bulgaria’s Minister of Interior, Mihail Mikov, Sunday’s policemen protest in Sofia had gone over the line, BTA reports Tuesday. Mikov said that the Policemen who tore off their uniform shoulder pieces as an act of protest should be removed from law enforcement. This is an insult to every …

Foreigners will be allowed to work as experts in Bulgaria’s state administration or councilors under new legislative changes, the prime minister said. Sergey Stanishev was speaking at a meeting with the ambassadors of EU member states, who were invited to hear more about the government’s idea to further cooperation between …