Balkans

12 November 2008 Skopje – Redza Zulkani, the brother-in-law of Menduh Thaci, the leader of the main opposition ethnic Albanian party in Macedonia, was shot dead late Tuesday, local media reported.

11 November 2008 Skopje – The Greek leading left-wing opposition party PASOK sacked its political communications advisor after he publicly said that Skopje has every right to be called Macedonia and that a Macedonian minority does exist in Greece.

11 November 2008 Belgrade – The international financial crisis has already reached Serbia and the country must brace itself for the protracted consequences of a market slump, a top official with the United Nations Development Program said.

11 November 2008 Tirana – Eleven lawmakers from Albania’s smaller parliamentary parties went on hunger strike on Monday to protest agaomst proposed changes to the electoral code.

11 November 2008 Belgrade – The Serbian government will enter the final phase of talks with Russia’s oil and gas conglomerate OAO Gazprom over the sale of the country’s Naftna Industrija Srbije, NIS, oil industry and the development of a wing of the South Stream gas pipeline, a official said on …

11 November 2008 Belgrade – Serbia will delay its answer to the International Monetary Fund over whether it will accept the financial body’s suggestion to suspend an increase in pensions until later this week, an official said on Tuesday.

11 November 2008 Skopje – Poland supports Macedonia’s efforts to integrate into Euro-Atlantic structures and will not change its position regarding the use of its constitutional name in bilateral relations, the Polish President Lech Kaczynski said late on Monday in Warsaw.

10 November 2008  Tirana – Eight people were arrested after the collapse of an apartment building in southern Albania left two women dead, a young girl missing and four others injured.

10 November 2008 Belgrade – Special Serbian police units came out empty handed after a raid on a factory in the western town of Valjevo in an apparent attempt to arrest General Ratko Mladic, sought for war crimes by the UN War Crimes Tribunal.

10 November 2008 Pristina – The Social Democratic Party of Kosovo, PSD, has criticised the government over the European Commission’s progress report on Kosovo.