Eurasia

The first trial to be held in Kosovo’s northern town of Mitrovica after the courts in the town shut down in February 2008, has begun. The EU’s Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, opened the trial against two Kosovo Serbs charged with breaking into the home of an elderly …

On the second day of Serbia’s Economic Forum held in the Kopaonik ski resort, the country’s President and government ministers gave some impressive speeches but failed to shed any new light on government policy. Tadic told the gathering that that he expects his government to reach an agreement with the …

Bulgaria is preparing contingency plans to ration gas to industrial consumers in case the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia once again blocks supplies to the country, the economy minister Petar Dimitrov said on March 04. Since Bulgaria relies entirely on Russian gas transited through Ukraine, Bulgaria was one of …

In a keynote speech delivered at an annual forum of Serbian economists the country’s president Boris Tadic delivered an impassioned call for an end to links between business, the state and crime. Addressing what some sections of the media have dubbed “Serbia’s Davos”, Tadic told delegates that without greater development …

RUSSIA is open to overtures from the US on its proposed missile defence plan but not to a deal in which the US would shelve the plan in exchange for Russia’s help on Iran. The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said he was responding to a report about a private letter …

TBILISI, Georgia: A leading Georgian opposition party is putting forth its leader to challenge President Mikhail Saakashvili. Labor Party leader Shalva Natelashvili’s decision comes as opposition groups struggle to force Saakashvili to hold new elections.

NATO foreign ministers are set Thursday to green-light the resumption of formal high-level ties with Russia while reassuring Georgia and Ukraine they have a future in the military alliance. NATO diplomats confirmed Wednesday an in-principle agreement to end the freeze, sparked by Russia’s war with Georgia last August, in an …

Valdis Dombrovskis is forming a government after the old one collapsed last month, a victim of the global financial crisis. The former finance minister nominated to form a new Latvian government named his cabinet on Wednesday, but disagreements immediately emerged with a key coalition partner over who should join the …

The devices exploded, causing a fire, which seriously damaged the Piraeus Bank branch in the northern Athens suburb of New Psychico. Arsonists threw gas canisters and firebombs at a bank branch office in Athens on Wednesday, causing serious damage to the building but no injuries, Greek police said. There has …

Milorad Dodik, the Prime Minister of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, has seemingly softened his radical rhetoric and temporarily abandoned plans for his entity’s independence, local media reported on Wednesday. The apparent shift in Dodik’s attitude came after his meeting on Tuesday with Stuart Jones, the deputy US …