Eurasia

A Bulgarian court has sentenced Issa Mehmed, nicknamed ‘The Hacker’, to four and a half years in prison for founding an organized crime group, money laundering, financial fraud and extortion, Croatian Javno news reported Tuesday. Mehmed and four members of his criminal gang were arrested on 20 January 2008 for …

After several weeks of an intensive emergency vaccination campaign the mumps epidemic in Macedonia has topped 3,600 patiens, but authorities expect the infection to eventually let up in the coming weeks. More than 35,000 people were vaccinated in the nation-wide action so far, the health ministry informs. The epidemic started …

Montenegro will give each of its neighbours and former ex-Yugoslavs Serbia and Croatia a small submarine as a gift, said Montenegro’s army chief of staff, Dragan Samardzic. Slovenia already got one of the six small Tisa submarines, class Una, produced in the late 80’s for the Yugoslav Navy in Croatia’s …

Serbia would rather ask for more loans to make it through the financial crisis than sell its fixed telephony and electricity monopolies, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said on Tuesday. “It’s better for the state to go into debt that to sell Telekom,” Tanjug agency quoted Djelic as saying, adding …

Serbia needs a new deal with the International Monetary Fund, but with that money going ensure the macro-economic stability of the country and not to protect the dinar rate, Serbia’s central bank governor Radovan Jelasic said on Tuesday, adding that the state needs the deal also as an excuse for …

One of Macedonia’s biggest infrastructure projects, the building of a ring road round the capital Skopje, is nearing completion after several delays, officials told local media on Monday. Last July the authorities opened to traffic the first stretch of the 26-kilometer long road, part of the long running efforts by …

Money sent home by Bulgarians living abroad boosted the Bulgarian economy with $1.9 billion in 2007, latest World Bank data showed, as quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio. After direct capital investments, remittances from migrant workers was the second most important source of external revenue for developing European economies, both …

Dan Dungaciu d.dungaciu@gmail.com „Curat murdar, coane Fănică!” Luna aceasta se împlineşte un an de la declararea independenţei Kosovo. Printr-o coincidenţă, la Chişinău a fost organizată cea de-a treia conferinţă internaţională dedicată chestiunii transnistrene. Prilej de dezbatere şi bilanţ în dosarul transnistrean. Dosar care, anticipând, nu arată deloc bine. Sau, oricum, …

BUCHAREST, Romania: Romania’s foreign minister says his country does not want citizens suspected of committing crimes in Italy to be repatriated. Cristian Diaconescu said Romania would accept the repatriation of Romanians who have been convicted of crimes, but not suspects. Anti-Romanian sentiment in Italy has escalated after recent attacks by …

Sofia. According to a report of the World Bank, Bulgaria is among 6 EU member states that might undergo a symbolic economic growth of 0-2% during 2009, along with Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia, The Dnevnik Daily informs. “The prognoses for the region are very uncertain, negative …