Balkans

BULGARIA Bulgarian Minister without portfolio Bozhidar Dimitrov will not visit Macedonia today, Macedonian Dnevnik newspaper writes. Instead of coming to the town of Prilep, where he was supposed to attend the inauguration of the restored Bulgarian-German cemetery, Dimitrov will go to a festival of arts in Bulgarian coastal town of …

BULGARIA Bulgaria is ready to buy 2.5 m2 of natural gas from Turkmenistan, said Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov after official ceremony on signing three documents between Bulgaria and Turkmenistan. Bulgarian head of state said this is an expression of gratitude towards Turkmenistan over the assessment Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow gave …

BiH Bosnian police arrested two Bosnian Serbs on Thursday, including a police officer, suspected of taking part in the massacre of about 200 Muslims and Croats in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the state prosecutor’s office said. Branko Topola, 41, was arrested in a police station in the northwestern town of …

SERBIA The Serbian government has proposed a 10 per cent cut in the number of public sector employees in talks with an IMF delegation, daily Blic reports. The measure is intended to cover the budget deficit, which is now equivalent to 4.5 per cent of GDP Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic …

MACEDONIA Macedonia’s ongoing industrial output contraction plumbed new depths in July, the State Statistical Office revealed. A record near 20 per cent output plunge was registered, when compared to July 2008. This is the tenth month in a row that industrial output has shrunk. Macedonia’s flagship metal industry was the …

BiH Bosnia’s Federation entity is preparing to privatise around 30 public companies over the next year, local media reported on Thursday. “Privatisation fever shakes the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” columnist Faruk Vele wrote in a piece published in influential Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz on Thursday. Authorities in the Croat-Bosniak …

KOSOVO The rebuilding of Kosovo Albanian homes in north Mitrovica was again delayed on Wednesday, when Serb members of Kosovo’s Police and EU rule of law mission, EULEX, officials prevented workers from entering the construction site. The Krou I Vitakut/Brdjani neighbourhood of Mitrovica has seen repeated violence since Kosovo Albanians …

SERBIA Around 100 Serb pilgrims and former residents of the Kosovo town of Gjakova will be visiting the country on Thursday and Friday to celebrate an Orthodox festival, Kosovo police spokesperson Arber Beka said. The group’s visit marks the festival of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God. “This …

SERBIA A committee has found Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, Serbia’s parliamentary speaker, in violation of the country’s conflict of interest regulations, daily Politika reports Thursday. The Committee for Preventing Conflicts of Interest says that she broke the law by simultaneously acting as speaker and as a paid adviser to the Galenika pharmaceutical …

SERBIA President Boris Tadić condemned on Tuesday the throwing of Molotov cocktails at the building of the Greek embassy in Belgrade, saying it was “intolerable”. Tadić conferred with Greek Ambassador Demestenis Stoidis and promised that state institutions would do everything to find the perpetrators and take them to justice, the …