Eurasia

PRISTINA, Kosovo Integrating the Serb minority remains the chief challenge facing Kosovo more than a year after Pristina declared its independence, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report Tuesday (May 12th). According to the document, Belgrade has channelled substantial funds into Serb municipalities, but with limited results. Parallel …

ZAGREB, Croatia Employees of elementary and secondary schools, as well as the staffs of research institutions, went on strike Wednesday (May 12th) despite encouraging negotiations between their trade unions and the cabinet, which dragged on through the night.

ANKARA, Turkey The government is drafting a series measures as part of a new approach to the Kurdish issue, local media reported on Tuesday (May 12th). This major policy shift was prompted by last week’s tragedy in the predominantly Kurdish province of Mardin, where gunmen killed 44 people at a …

BUCHAREST, Romania President Traian Basescu on Tuesday (May 12th) responded to accusations from Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Mircea Geoana over inefficient reforms in the judiciary and poor results in fighting corruption.

TBILISI The OSCE donated equipment for dismantling and recycling obsolete TNT-filled munitions to the Georgian Defence Ministry today. “This equipment will enable the Georgian Defence Ministry to recycle TNT-filled warheads in order to deal with this environmental threat in an effective way,” said Ambassador Terhi Hakala, the Head of the …

Armenian-Turkish reconciliation and settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict are linked to implementation of the Nabucco project, told a political scientist Suren Zolian a news conference in Yerevan.

BUCHAREST Romania will solve its bilateral problems with the Republic of Moldova through bilateral dialogue, said Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu on Tuesday. “We will solve our problems by ourselves, in our manner and with our means,” Diaconescu told a press conference, adding that the country will not transfer the issues …

Relatives of those massacred in 1995 are dismayed by reports that their loved ones’ exhumed possessions may since have been destroyed without their permission. Families of the men and boys killed in Srebrenica are in uproar over claims that personal things taken by ICTY investigators from mass graves located in …

Police in Bosnia took war crimes fugitive Branimir Glavas into custody following a decision on Tuesday by Croatia to issue an international arrest warrant. Glavas’ Bosnian attorney Nikic Grzic confirmed for Croatian television HTV that Glavas is to be taken to Sarajevo before noon Wednesday, in order to determine whether …

Serbia’s state owned gas company will on Friday sign an agreement with Russian gas giant Gazprom for the construction of a part of the South Stream gas pipeline that will go through Serbia. General Director of Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic said he will sign the agreement with the president of Gazprom …