Pristina – The Czech Republic, the country who heads the up coming presidency of the EU, expects that more countries will recognise Kosovo in the coming year. Deputy Prime Minster for European Affairs, Alexander Vondra, said he expects recognitions to come from EU countries which have not done so yet.

Zagreb – Croatia is not yet ready to become a member of the European Union, a Dutch newspaper quoted European Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans as saying. NRC Handelsblad reported that Timmermans said that he “completely disagreed’ with the assessment of EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn after the EU Commission said …

Pristina – Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it will open some 22 new embassies in countries around the world in 2009. In the Pristina daily newspaper ‘Zeri’, the ministry’s spokeswoman Albana Beqiri said these embassies will be set up by ambassadors, adding the that ministry will soon begin hiring …

Pristina _ The transformation of Kosovo’s Protection Corps, TMK, into Kosovo’s Security Forces, KSF, has been postponed until January because of delays in appointed a chief. The Kosovo’s Protection Corps, which is mostly made of former fighters from the Kosovo Liberation Army, will continue providing additional security along with NATO …

GYUMRI, Armenia (Reuters) – Zhora Azizyan felt lucky when he was granted temporary housing made of concrete blocks rather than the railway cars given to others after the earthquake that devastated northwestern Armenia. But that was 1988. Now he struggles to paper over the cracks in the walls, and the …

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Jewish settlers torched a rooftop enclosure of a Palestinian man’s home in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, a Palestinian police spokesman said. The United Nations as well as Palestinian and Israeli officials have condemned violence by settlers since tensions rose on Thursday …

Alexiy II has been laying in state at his residence near Moscow following his sudden death on Friday. Today, the late Patriarch of All Russia is expected to be taken through the capital to be lain in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour after 18 years as head of Russia’s …

TEHRAN (FNA)- The chief of the world’s nuclear watchdog organization considers five years of US and international efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear progress a failure, as Tehran moves ever closer to fully mastering nuclear technology. The United Nations Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions to try to …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Total Iranian-German trade volume rose 7.8 percent between January and September of this year compared to same period in 2007, the Federal Statistical Office based in the south German city of Wiesbaden reported. The overall bilateral trade volume until the end of September stood at 3.233865 billion euros, …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to build two new 1000-megawatt units at the Bushehr nuclear power complex, a senior Iranian official said. Deputy Director of the Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh said that instead of completing the second unit at the Bushehr plant, Iranian authorities have decided to build …