Eurasia

ZAGREB Croatia this Tuesday celebrates the anniversary of a military operation as Victory Day and Homeland Gratitude Day and Day of Croatian Defenders. This despite the fact that the August, 1995 military attack, known as Operation Storm, on Serb areas of that country killed over 2,000 and drove more than …

BELGRADE Chairman of the Coordination Body for Southern Serbia Milan Marković says the recent ethnic Albanian declaration “will not solve any problems”. The body deals with issues in the southern municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, where Serbia’s largest population of ethnic Albanians outside of Kosovo itself lives.

Ukraine sold 34 tanks (33 to Kenya and 1 to Georgia) in 2008, Kyiv said in a report issued for the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. Georgia purchased 15 infantry fighting vehicles and 25 armored personnel carriers. U.S. bought 1 IFV-3. Azerbaijan bought 32 APC-70. Ukraine made some $800 …

PARIS Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called on the U.S. and the European Union Tuesday to send a “clear message” to Russia to help prevent a repeat of last year’s war between Moscow and Tbilisi. 

TBILISI The Georgian Interior Ministry on Tuesday denied reports saying that “three mortar shots were made towards the South Ossetian village of Otrevi from the territory of the Georgian village of Plavismani on Monday evening.” An official of the country’s ministry called such reports “disinformation.” 

TSKHINVAL Shelling of the South Ossetian village Otrev from the Georgian territory causes concern of the South Ossetian population who “are afraid of the repetition of the August 2008 events,” spokeswoman for the South Ossetian Defence Ministry Galina Guchmazova told the Vesti news television channel in an interview. “Taking into …

Primarul liberal al Chişinăului, vicepreşedintele Partidului Liberal Dorin Chirtoacă, crede că Republica Moldova se află în pragul unei noi epoci politice şi este convins sută la sută de unitatea celor patru partide necomuniste care au pus bazele unei coaliţii, excluzând o alianţă cu PCRM.

A parliamentary election in Moldova has boosted the fortunes of the liberal opposition but the Communists will likely continue as the country’s dominant political force – without outgoing President Vladimir Voronin. With loans from China and Russia hanging in the balance, the question was who would be able to sort …

SOFIA, Bulgaria The ministers of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB) dealing with EU programs will make an evaluation on all projects with signed contracts for financing. EU Affairs and EU Funds Control Committee chairperson Svetlin Tanchev announced the news.

The new head of NATO has said that its Kosovo force could be completely withdrawn within four years. Anders Rasmussen, NATO’s new secretary general, said he wanted to see Kosovo Force, KFOR, “reduced to just a small reaction force, or out altogether” within his four-year term.