Eurasia

PRISTINA EULEX chief Yves de Kermabon says a protocol between the EU mission and Serbia’s MUP is not related to the so-called six point plan. He met in Priština yesterday with the Kosovo Albanian leaders, President Fatmir Sejdiu and PM Hashim Thaci, to discuss the signing of the police cooperation …

TURKEY Turkey has begun restoring names of Kurdish villages and is considering allowing religious sermons to be made in Kurdish as part of reforms to answer the grievances of the ethnic minority and advance its EU candidacy. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said his government will push democratic reforms to …

SERBIA, ALBANIA Belgrade-Tirana relations can sharpen after Sali Berisha’s statement about national unity of Albanians in the mother land and Kosovo, representative of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija in the Serbian government Oliver Ivanovic said. Tirana’s official response to Belgrade’s protest note about “cooperation between Republic of Albania and …

BULGARIA The Belene nuclear power project is not vital for Bulgaria’s energy security, Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said. In an interview with bTV, he downplayed speculation that the country must bring the proposed station onstream if it is to guarantee supplies by 2020. If it builds capacity at the coal-fired …

BULGARIA Deputy Minister of Finance Anna Mihaylova said that entering the Eurozone was a priority for the cabinet. However, she highlighted that in first place Bulgaria should work fast in order to enter the exchange rate mechanism (ERM II). ‘The support of the other EU member states, of the EU, …

RUSSIA Russian PM Vladimir Putin has promised relatives of victims of an explosion at a Russian hydro-electric power plant 1m roubles ($30,000) each in compensation. The death toll from Monday’s blast at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in Siberia now stands at 47, with 28 people missing and assumed dead. Mr Putin …

RUSSIA Early reports of a series of explosions in the capital of Chechnya say at least five people have been killed, policemen among them, according to a Russian agency source. Bystanders near a shop in Grozny said it was the work of suicide bombers, one of them on a bicycle. …

RUSSIA Chechen fighters said in a letter posted on a rebel website that they had used an anti-tank grenade to cause a disaster at a massive dam in Siberia this week presumed to have killed over 70 people. “Glory to Allah, on August 17 through our efforts, a subversive operation …

MACEDONIA Macedonia remains committed to the Athens-Skopje name talks, the country’s negotiator, Zoran Jolevski, said after his Thursday meeting with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz. In their meeting, Jolevski presented Macedonia’s positions on a set of ideas to resolve the dispute tabled by Nimetz in July. Greece presented its responses earlier …

BiH After months of political quarrels and disputes, Bosnia’s new top EU negotiator will be appointed on Friday, Bosnian Premier Nikola Spiric said. The appointment, if it indeed takes place, is only expected to further deepen political and ethnic divisions within Bosnia’s state government, the Council of Ministers, over the …